Kerala chief minister VD Satheesan on Thursday claimed that serious allegations including GST fraud and lapses in selection of the private sponsor were reported in the previous LDF government’s efforts to bring Lionel Messi-led Argentina national team to play a friendly match in the state.
The chief minister was citing a preliminary inquiry report submitted by the sports department. He said the report is being examined and warrants further investigations.
“What was the procedure adopted in selecting a private firm to sponsor the event? Was there an Expression of Interest? A firm was picked, but parameters including its source of funding and financial capability were not considered. Did the previous government know about this? There are already a lot of contradictory statements coming out,” the CM said at a press briefing in Thiruvananthapuram.
He said that the finance department, which he oversees, will take action and make efforts to recover the State’s losses in GST collection.
“Prima facie, GST fraud has taken place. There are some serious allegations. It happened during the tenure of the previous government and even a notice was served (to the private sponsor). But it seems the inquiry was frozen,” he said.
On whether central agencies will be invited to probe aspects of possible money laundering, the CM said, “Let the state government examine it first. If there is a need for central agency probes, we will refer it to them. Have the State’s interests been protected? Did the private firm take advantage of the situation? Everything will be examined.”
Satheesan also rejected allegations made by a top official of a private firm which runs a 24×7 news channel that the state government was targeting the company. “The inquiry report has just been submitted to me. I have not taken any action on it,” he said.
In 2023, then sports minister V Abdurahiman had announced that the State government was partnering with the firm to host the Messi-led Argentine side to play a friendly exhibition match at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Kochi at no cost to the public exchequer. The former minister even travelled to Spain on one occasion to reportedly hold talks with the Argentina Football Association (AFA) officials and had claimed at one point that AFA has agreed to send the delegation, including Messi, to Kerala. However, the event failed to materialise.
The inquiry report has pointed to several violations in the way the event was planned, including the absence of any formal agreement between AFA, the Kerala government and the private sponsor, all formal communications being restricted to the sports minister’s office, service tax fraud on foreign remittances and the lack of a transparent tender process before the sponsor was finalised.
Abdurahiman and the private firm have rejected the allegations made in the inquiry report.