Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Wednesday rebutted the charges by leader of opposition Ramesh Chennithala on the data transfer of Covid-19 suspects to a US-based PR and marketing firm Sprinklr.

Addressing the media after chairing the daily review meeting of Covid-19, the CM said: "We have nothing to hide anything in this. State-owned C-DIT will have the full control of the data and so, there will be no data leaks. The data collected will be put in a server in our country only. Some people want to create a smokescreen over a non-issue."

"At a time when things have to be done quickly, as we have been doing, to tackle Covid-19, the routine procedures (about any "undersanding" with the firm) might not have taken place. There is no financial implication at all for the state," said Vijayan.

Chennithala has been asking Vijayan to come clean on the transfer of data pertaining to Covid-19 suspects to a US-based PR and marketing firm Sprinklr.

Chennithala repeated his charge on Wednesday too. "This deal is a fraudulent and has no concurrence of either the health, IT or local self-government departments. Vijayan is beating about the bush," said Chennithala.

He first raised this issue last week and then Vijayan had said the company belongs to a person from Kerala and that he had offered to help the state. He also said that the government is not paying anything to this company.

"The agreement that has now been put out on the website is the one which is nothing but emails that are sent back and forth, after I raised the issue. Vijayan said it's for free, but the agreements now show it will be priced after Covid-19. So the biggest bluff has now been exposed," said Chennithala.