Thiruvananthapuram The Enforcement Directorate (ED) investigation into the drug trafficking-related money laundering charges against Bineesh Kodiyeri in Karnataka lengthened to Kerala on Tuesday.
Bineesh is the son of Communist Party of India (Marxist) State secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan.
An ED team from Karnataka has reportedly arrived in the State to investigate persons and businesses they suspect had helped Bineesh conceal and launder money obtained illegally.
The CPI(M) has attempted to distance itself from the case. At the same time, the Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have sought to weaponise the ongoing probe against the government and the CPI(M).
In a filing in the court of the Special Judge, Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), Bengaluru, on Monday, the ED alleged Bineesh had many front persons (benamidars) to “create assets in their name to avoid detection”.
Bineesh owned “high-end cars” in the name of one Al Jassam Abdul Jabbar. Abdul Latheef, a businessperson, co-owned Old Coffee House restaurant with Bineesh.
The ED said UAFX solutions, Car Palace, Capito Lights, KK Rocks Quarry, and their promoters were under the ambit of its investigation.
The agency required to question Latheef to “gather evidence regarding the illegal activities and proceeds of crime”.
The ED wanted to “confront Bineesh and Latheef” with the “voluminous documents and digital evidence” agents had ferreted out.
Investigations so far had revealed that Bineesh had generated large sums of money from the State and infused the cash into the accounts and shell companies run by his “frontmen”.
The arrest of one Muhammad Anoop, a Kochi resident, on drug charges by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in Bengaluru in April had led to the arrest of Bineesh by the ED.
The ED’s task in Kerala was to trace the proceeds from the crime, identify diversions, single out “end users”, and confiscate properties involved in money laundering.
