A special court in Bengaluru has extended the custody period of Bineesh Kodiyeri, son of Kerala CPI(M) state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, who was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case linked to peddling drugs in Bengaluru. The court on Saturday sent Bineesh to four more days of ED custody. The agency had produced him before the special court as the five-day custody ended on Saturday.
The agency arrested Bineesh on October 29 after his name surfaced in the dealings of Mohammed Anoop, one of the accused in the Bengaluru drugs peddling case.
The agency sought four days custody, stating that they found Mohammed Anoop's debit card at Bineesh Kodiyeri’s residence in Thiruvananthapuram and that it needed to make further investigations. The ED has charged that the hotel Anoop was operating in Bengaluru was Bineesh's benami property.
The Enforcement Directorate has charged Bineesh for allegedly transferring huge amounts of money into Anoop's bank account.
The ED started the probe after the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) alleged it had busted an ecstasy pills drug trafficking racket in Karnataka in August along with the arrest of Anoop and two others.
Bineesh has maintained that he knew Anoop and his family and that the latter had borrowed some money from him and others for setting up a restaurant business in Bengaluru a few years ago.
The ED had conducted raids at Bineesh’s residence on November 5, during which, as per the investigation agency, it seized Anoop's debit card from the house. Bineesh’s wife, who was present in the house during the raid, said she suspected the agency planted the debit card in the house. She also said that she refused to sign the documents that ED had produced, due to the suspicion that the debit card was brought in by the ED officials themselves.