Central and State agencies appeared to come head-to-head during the Enforcement Directorate's protracted inspection of the house of Binish Kodiyeri, son of the State secretary of Communist Party of India (Marxist), here on Thursday.
Kerala Child Rights Commission (KCRC) served a legal notice on ED inspectors for "imperilling the welfare" of Mr. Binesh's two-year-old daughter.
The State police moved against them on the charge of illegally detaining Mr. Bineesh's wife, Renita, and her mother in the house for over 26 hours without any link to the outside world.
The theatre had played out at "Kodiyeri", Mr. Binesh's house at Maruthankuzhy, even as the members of the CPM Central secretariat, including Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Mr. Balakrishnan, were cooped up in a meeting at the AKG Centre.
The ED had taken over the house on Wednesday. Almost 26-hours hours later on Thursday, Mr. Bineesh's relatives staged a sit-in protest in front of the residence demanding that the ED let them inside.
Soon, KCRC chairman, K. V. Manoj Kumar, a CPM nominee, arrived at the gate and demanded the ED allow the Commission inside. ED responded by allowing Ms. Renitta and her mother to come outside and see their relatives and speak to the waiting media.
Ms. Renitta alleged that the ED had mentally harassed her and the child. ED officials attempted to hector her into signing a witness form and seizure report. She accused the ED of planting evidence.
Ms. Renitta questioned the ED's statement that inspectors had found a credit card belonging to a drug trafficking case suspect in the house.
Ms. Renitta said the ED had foisted a false case on her Mr. Binesh. "He is neither an underworld don nor boss. He just had a lot of friends", she said.
Mr. Bineesh, who is in the ED's custody in Bangalore on drug trafficking-related money laundering charges, responded rather stoically to the news of the raid. "Let them do whatever they can do", he told reporters there.
