The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has issued a notice to former chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan to appear before it for questioning next week regarding the alleged Cochin Minerals and Rutile Limited (CMRL)-Exalogic payoffs, even as the Supreme Court on Friday indicated that it may constitute a special bench during the Dussehra holidays to hear his plea seeking protection from arrest.
The FIRs were filed in connection with alleged financial dealings between CMRL and Veena’s now-defunct firm, Exalogic Solutions Pvt Ltd. The Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) filed the FIRs following the high court’s direction to investigate alleged corruption and conspiracy over payments CMRL and an associate company made to Exalogic and Veena. Vijayan is named as the first accused in one FIR. Riyas is the first accused in the other. Veena is named as the second accused in both. The department subsequently flagged tax evasion through exaggerated expenses. It also found diary entries indicating payments made to prominent political leaders, media houses, trade union leaders, and police officers. In February that year, the Karnataka high court dismissed Veena’s plea seeking to quash the probe.
Senior Advocate Siddharth Luthra, who appeared for Vijayan in the Supreme Court, told a bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi that his 82-year-old client faces the risk of arrest. In January 2019, the IT department raided the CMRL premises and the residences of its managing director, Sasidharan Kartha, and Suresh Kumar. In January 2024, the Union corporate affairs ministry ordered an inquiry into the allegations under the Companies Act.
On Thursday, the Kerala high court refused to interfere with an order directing the registration of first information reports (FIRs) against Vijayan, his daughter Veena and his son-in-law, former minister PA Mohamed Riyas.
The Kerala high court on October 9 ordered the VACB to register an FIR and initiate an inquiry in the case on activist-lawyer KM Shajahan’s petition seeking directions to charge Vijayan and others based on the ED findings.
A single-judge bench of the Kerala high court said the ED report contains sufficient information pointing to cognisable offences.
