The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday began quizzing V.K. Ebrahim Kunju, Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) leader and MLA representing Kalamassery constituency, over allegations of money laundering against him.
Mr. Kunju, former Minister for Public Works in the United Democratic Front government during 2011-16, is accused of depositing about ₹10 crore into the bank account of his party’s mouthpiece Chandrika daily when high-value currency notes of ₹500 and ₹1,000 were banned by the Centre in November, 2016. The questioning of the MLA is being held at the ED’s office here.
The Kerala High Court had asked the agency to probe the case in response to a public interest litigation petition filed by Kalamassery-native Girish Babu seeking an investigation against Mr. Kunju for alleged money laundering. The petitioner had alleged that unaccounted money was transferred into two bank accounts of Chandrika in Kochi on November 15, 2016.
The IUML leadership had rejected the allegations as baseless while claiming that the transactions were actually part of routine long-term subscriber funds collected by the newspaper management.
