New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has launched a probe into a money laundering case involving Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s daughter, Veena Vijayan.
On Wednesday, March 27, the Kochi unit of ED filed an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR), which is akin to a first information report (FIR) lodged by the police for cognisable offences. Veena’s IT firm, Exalogic Solutions Private Limited, Cochin-based mining firm Cochin Minerals And Rutile Ltd (CMRL), and state-run Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation (KSIDC) have been named in the report.
The particular case is already being investigated by the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO), a department under the Union government’s ministry of corporate affairs.
The chief minister’s daughter has been under the scanner of several probe agencies since last year when an income tax department’s report on CMRL stated that the minerals firm had made an “illegal payment” of Rs 1.72 crore over three years from 2018-19 to Veena’s firm, Exalogic Solutions Private Limited even though the latter did not provide any services to the former. The state-run KSIDC has a stake of 13% in CMRL.
Both Veena’s firm and KSIDC had separately moved the Karnataka high court seeking a stay on the probe by SFIO, which, however, was declined. Exalogic Solutions Private Limited is based in Bengaluru.
The ED’s case is based on a complaint from Shone George, a member of the Kottayam district panchayat and son of senior politician P.C. George, who recently joined the BJP. Earlier, Congress MLA Mathew Kuzhalnadan had also raised the issue, alleging corruption by Veena’s firm.
Vijayan dismissed the case against his daughter’s firm as a “political witch hunt”, according to The News Minute, both inside the state legislative assembly and outside.
