The Enforcement Directorate has written to police chief of Keralam seeking to register a case against Leader of Opposition and former Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, his son-in-law and MLA Mohammed Riyas and his daughter T Veena in connection with the Cochin Minerals and Rutile Limited (CMRL) payoff case.
State Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala said the director general of police has confirmed receiving a letter from ED on Tuesday, September 8. “Let us examine the letter. Necessary legal steps will be taken after that,” Chennithaal said.
As per the document shared by TV channels, the charges against Pinarayi Vijayan were based on the admission of P Suresh Kumar, former Chief Financial Officer of CMRL. As per ED’s note, Vijayan received Rs 3.28 crore bribe from CMRL through his daughter Veena.
According to ED, Veena’s husband and MLA Mohammed Riyas received bribes and transferred the funds to Dubai through Veena and his associates. The ED has accused Veena of assisting Vijayan and Mohammed Riyas in collecting and routing of bribe funds. The ED has sought to register a first information report (FIR) under the Prevention of Corruption Act and other relevant laws.
Names of 13 individuals and entities are part of the ED’s letter. These include CMRL managing director Sasidharan Kartha, former CFO Suresh Kumar, Veena’s now defunct IT firm Exalogic Solutions and some individuals whom ED listed as those who assisted Riyas in transferring funds.
In May, investigating officers under ED conducted searches at the residence of Pinarayi Vijayan in Thiruvananthapuram and his ancestral home in Kannur. This led to intense protest by workers of Communist Party of India (Marxist), which ended up in an attack on ED officers in Thiruvananthapuram. Around 18 CPIM workers were arrested for attacking ED officers.
The alleged CMRL-Exalogic payoff case began with an inspection of the Income Tax department at CMRL which found that it paid around Rs 1.72 crore to Exalogic between 2017-2020. Later ED began an investigation into the allegation that the money was a pay off to Pinarayi Vijayan.
In addition to a monthly payment of Rs 3 lakh to Exalogic, CMRL has paid Veena a remuneration of Rs 5 lakh per month for IT consultancy services. As per ED’s report, there was no evidence that Exalogic or Veena actually provided IT services to CMRL during this period.