After the arrest of Bineesh Kodiyeri, the son of Kerala CPI(M) leader Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, the remand report by the Enforcement Directorate(ED) submitted to the City Civil and Sessions Court in Bengaluru alleged that Bineesh credited "huge amount of funds" into the bank accounts of an alleged drug peddler who was arrested by the NCB.
The peddler - Mohammed Anoop - was recently arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in Bengaluru after he was found in possession of 60 grams of MDMA tablets (a psychotropic substance) in his residence. The report stated that Mohammed Anoop was made a ‘benamidar’ or a proxy for one of Bineesh’s restaurants.
The remand copy further says the investigators found that Anoop, “who is a drug peddler, accepted that Mr. Bineesh Kodiyeri is his boss and he did whatever Mr. Bineesh told him to do, for which Mr. Bineesh used to pay him.”
While stating that Bineesh did not cooperate during the PMLA(Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002) investigation and not divulging the details of the entire laundered money while deposing, the remand copy further states that he “admitted in his statement dated 06.10.2020 that he has paid huge amount of money to Mr. Mohammed Anoop. However, he has not disclosed the complete information w.r.t the financial transactions and the proceeds of crime involved in money laundering.”
The agency says they have enough material to believe that Bineesh “is guilty of the offence of money laundering u/s 3 of the Act and punishable u/s 4 of the Act.”
Bineesh was arrested in Bengaluru on Thursday after which a local court sent him to ED's custody till November 2. While the ED had asked for custody of Bineesh for a period of 14 days, they were granted the same for 7 days only. ED had argued that Bineesh wields considerable influence “on the perpetrators of the money laundering offence and if not remanded to Enforcement Directorate custody will continue to indulge in the said offence and this would severely scuttle the investigation and destroy the evidences.”
ED had further argued before the Bengaluru Session’s Court that Bineesh’s custody would enable them “to pursue the ongoing investigations unhampered, under the PMLA, in the interest of justice.”
Bineesh Kodiyeri arrived at the Zonal Office of ED in Bengaluru at 11 am on Thursday and was taken into custody just a few hours into the questioning. He was also interrogated by the ED in Bengaluru on October 3 for around six hours in connection with the Bengaluru drug peddling case. The ED is investigating the money laundering angle in connection with the drugs case filed by NCB in Bengaluru.