CPI(M) seeks IUML stand on Shaji’s foreign trip with liquor businessman

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] Malappuram district secretariat has asked the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) to clarify its stand on Local Self-Government Minister K.M. Shaji’s reported trip to the Czech Republic with a liquor businessman.

In a statement here on Wednesday, the CPI(M) questioned the circumstances of the Minister’s European tour and demanded that he disclose who sponsored the trip.

The party said reports indicated that Mr. Shaji had permission to visit Austria, Bulgaria, and Switzerland, but had also travelled to Prague, the Czech capital, without informing the Union or State government.

It also referred to photographs reportedly showing the Minister with a liquor businessman and a person accused in a job fraud case, asking whether the IUML approved of his accepting their hospitality.