Additional private secretary to Chief Minister C.M. Raveendran has reportedly claimed inability to appear before the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
The agency had summoned him for the third time to its office in Kochi as part of a purportedly impending probe into various government projects and the allegations against the Uralungal Labour Contract Cooperative Society.
Mr. Raveendran pleaded illness and sought two more weeks for presenting himself before the investigators. He has purportedly sent an e-mail to the agency detailing his health status along with a medical testimonial issued by doctors at the Government Medical College Hospital here.
Mr. Raveendran’s failure to heed the summons of the ED for the third time has triggered intense speculation that the agency might seek the constitution of an independent medical board to assess his health condition.
It had taken a similar step in the case of M. Sivasankar, former Principal Secretary to Chief Minister, before dramatically arresting him from an Ayurveda hospital.
The Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had sought to politicise Mr. Raveendran’s alleged reluctance to appear before the ED.
Leader of the Opposition Ramesh Chennithala had demanded an independent panel of doctors from AIIMS to examine Mr. Raveendran and assess his health accurately.
BJP State president K. Surendran said in Kasaragod that Mr. Raveendran was the consummate insider in the Chief Minister’s Office and privy to all comings and goings and deal-making. He alleged that Mr. Raveendran’s questioning would invariably lead the agency to Mr. Vijayan.
State secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] A. Vijayaraghavan said the move to implicate Mr. Raveendran in ongoing investigations fakely was an election period stunt to case the Chief Minister’s Office under a cloud. He said Central agencies, at the behest of their political masters, were gunning for Mr. Vijayan.
