The Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday questioned Binish Kodiyeri, son of CPI(M) state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, for more than six hours at its Kochi office in connection with the Bengaluru drugs seizure case and the Thiruvananthapuram airport gold smuggling case.
Bineesh reached the ED office around 10 am as per ED's demand.
Bineesh's name got linked to the Bengaluru drugs seizure case when Anoop Mohammed, one of those arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau, gave a statement that Bineesh had funded a restaurant that he started a few years ago. Anoop was arrested with more than 250 MDMA pills in his possession
Anoop had apparently bought the pills from actor Anikha, who is believed to be the kingpin of the racket.
Anoop has told the NCB that he had leased a property at Kammanahalli in Bengaluru in 2015 and opened a restaurant with the name 'Hyaat' at Agnes Arcade with financial help from Bineesh.
Bineesh, while responding to the allegation, admitted that he was friends with Anoop and that he had loaned him money to start a business. Bineesh, however, said that Anoop's arrest came as a shock to him and he had no clue of the latter's drug business.
Youth League state general secretary P.K. Firoz, meanwhile, alleged that Anoop and Bineesh were together at a party at a resort in Kumarakom during the time of lockdown in June. Demanding a detailed inquiry into their activities, Firoz said Bineesh's alleged bigger role in the Bengaluru drug case and the Thiruvananthapuram airport gold smuggling case should be probed.
However, Bineesh refuted this by saying that the pictures were taken a long time ago and he had not made any recent visit to Kumarakom.
The ED is also likely to look into allegations that he ran shell companies which were closed in just a year after they became operational. Two companies—one based in Kozhikode and the other in Bengaluru—started by Bineesh were frozen by the Registrar of Companies for not submitting their annual reports even once since 2015.
