After explosive allegations, Binoy Kodiyeri gets good conduct certificate from Dubai police, court

In a twist to the Binoy Kodiyeri financial fraud case, the Dubai police issued a certificate stating that he has displayed good conduct and behaviour until the time the certificate was given to him. Another certificate issued by the Dubai court also said that no cases had been registered against Binoy yet.

Both certificates were issued on Thursday on Binoy’s request.

Binoy Kodiyeri, son of CPI (M) State Secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, has been accused of swindling a Dubai-based firm of Rs 13 crore. Documents published by sections of the Malayalam media show a letter written by a Dubai-based firm, JAAS Tourism LLC, asking the Indian government’s assistance to register a formal complaint against Binoy in the case. It also said that Binoy allegedly absconded from the UAE after cheating the company, adding that the complainant had approached the Interpol to issue a red warrant against Binoy.

With the Dubai Police certificate, the CPI (M) lashed out against the media, accusing it of spreading lies. In its official Facebook page, the party wrote, “The allegations of financial fraud against Kodiyeri’s son is the latest episode in the fake stories cooked up by Malayalam media kings … It has been proved that this allegation is baseless as per the certificate Binoy Kodiyeri got from the Dubai police.”

A statement released by the CPI (M) State Secretariat said, “Binoy has been living Dubai since 2003. There is no case on financial irregularities pending against him. Binoy has made it clear that there are no cases against him in Dubai nor is he facing any ban on traveling. No media has presented any documents refuting his claims." 

"Neither the state government nor the CPI (M) has anything do with financial dealings said to have happened in a foreign country. It is a political conspiracy to use this as a stick to beat the CPI (M)," it added.

This case had led to a political storm in Kerala, with the Opposition demanding that Kodiyeri Balakrishnan exit the Politburo.

The party has been on the defensive ever since the story broke and Kodiyeri even met with Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Wednesday. 

The issue also led to a ruckus in the Assembly on Thursday morning, after Leader of Opposition Ramesh Chennithala, raised the issue. "It's very strange and surprising that while the CPI (M) special plenum clearly pointed out that Communists should live very modestly, and we recently saw the party ousting an MP because he was using an expensive pen and an iPhone ... But today, we hear of this fraud done by the party secretary's son, which has become a cause of shame for the Kerala diaspora. We demand a probe by the state government," said Ramesh in the Assembly.

This led to chaos as the Opposition and the ruling MLAs engaged in verbal fight. However the Chief Minister took the stand that these are news reports only, and that no formal case had been registered. He also said that the government won’t probe the allegations as it hasn’t received any complaints yet.

While Ramesh said he would write to the government demanding a probe, the BJP wrote to the Enforcement Directorate, asking it to initiate action against Kodiyeri and his sons, Binoy and Bineesh, for violating provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act and for amassing wealth disproportionate to their known sources of income.