THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The opposition has launched a scathing attack on the Chief Minister in the AI camera scam allegations. Opposition Leader VD Satheesan said that there is out-and-out corruption in the contract and that the contract began with a conspiracy. He also said that the opposition is giving one last chance to the Chief Minister to come up with a reply.

"The first conspiracy was about coming up with a Rs 235-crore estimate. This was a fake estimate that was prepared with highly inflated costs. It was mentioned in the tender document that the contracted company cannot issue sub-contracts to carry out important works. However, that was violated. In October 2020, Keltron formed a consortium with three companies namely SRIT, Al-Hind and Prasadio. Al Hind later left the consortium. On March 3, 2021, SRIT issued a subcontract to a Hyderabad-based company without the knowledge of Keltron. Keltron came to know about this only after 10 days. Although Keltron had the authority to cancel the contract in case of violation, it did not take any action. Moreover, Keltron aided all these violations," Satheesan said.

"It is becoming clear that the Chief Minister's relatives have connections with these companies. The Chief Minister should break his silence at least by now. The allegations have reached the Chief Minister's house and his room. Although reports are claiming that CM's close relative had a role in this deal, the CM is not ready to dismiss it. No minister is ready to respond on the issue. The Industries Minister is nowhere to be seen," he said.

"We are giving one last chance to the CM to respond to the allegation. That is natural justice. For the past three weeks, no one from the government has responded to any of the allegations raised by me and Ramesh Chennithala. The CM does not even have the courage to deny the allegations. If you have any doubts about any of the documents raised by us, do let us know. We will soon release more documents," he added.