Pinarayi Vijayan ED raid: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday conducted searches at 10 premises, including that of former Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan as part of its probe into the alleged illegal payments made by Cochin Minerals and Rutile Limited (CMRL) to his daughter Veena T’s IT company, Exalogic Solutions.
According to sources, searches are underway at Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi, Kozhikode, Kannur and Bengaluru. The premises being searched include Vijayan’s rented house in the state capital, his house in Pinarayi, Kannur, his son-in-law Muhammed Riyas’s house in Kozhikode, and the residences of senior CMRL executives, including managing director Sasidharan Kartha.
While Vijayan, the leader of the CPI(M)-led Opposition in the Kerala Assembly, has yet to react, party general secretary M A Baby issued a statement. “The CPI(M) denounces the ED raid on comrade Pinarayi Vijayan’s residence. This is a targeted attack on a top Opposition leader by the BJP government. Such actions will not intimidate Vijayan or the CPI(M). Is the UDF government in Kerala complicit in this raid?” Baby said.
The ED searches came a day after the Kerala High Court rejected CMRL’s petition to quash the central agency’s proceedings.
The alleged payment scam surfaced in 2023 when Vijayan was the chief minister, following an income-tax (I-T) raid on CMRL premises. As per the I-T department, CMRL allegedly paid about Rs 1.72 crore to Exalogic between 2017-18 and 2018-19 under agreements for software development, management, and consultancy services. The Interim Board of Settlement of the I-T department allegedly found that Exalogic did not provide any service for the payment, terming the financial transaction illegal. Subsequently, the ED launched a money-laundering probe and questioned CMRL officials.
The Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) also examined wider CMRL financial transactions. It was found that CMRL had allegedly made huge payments to several politicians, who were mentioned as abbreviations in the documents seized by I-T officials. The beneficiaries allegedly included politicians from various parties.
Raising the ED probe against Veena, the Congress in Kerala had alleged that the central agency under the BJP regime was not questioning Vijayan as part of a CPI(M)-BJP deal. During the recently concluded Assembly elections, the Congress national leadership had raised the issue to buttress the allegation of a CPI(M)-BJP deal.
During an election convention, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, had said that all Opposition leaders fighting the BJP were facing cases and being interrogated by central agencies. “I want to ask the people of Kerala why the BJP does not attack the chief minister of Kerala. Why is the corruption case against the chief minister not going anywhere? It is the best proof of the collusion between the BJP and the LDF,” he had said.
Read More: India’s Tech Race: Why the Google AI Hub in Vizag Matters
