Bineesh Kodiyeri, son of CPI(M) Kerala State Secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, has been taken into custody by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the probe over the money-trail in a drug racket case on Thursday.
Earlier on Thursday, Bineesh was questioned at the agency’s office in Bengaluru over his alleged links to Mohammed Anoop, an accused in a drug racket case busted by Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) here in August. This was the third time that the ED is questioning Bineesh in a span of two months.
During their raids in Bangalore, the NCB recovered a huge cache of party drugs from Anoop and during the course of the investigation that followed, Bineesh’s name surfaced.
Anoop, in his statement, had said Bineesh had lent him Rs 50 lakh to set up a restaurant in Kammanahalli in Bangalore. However, the latter has maintained that he and Anoop were friends and that he had given him a loan of Rs 6 lakh and another Rs 15,000 since Anoop had no money to return home from Bengaluru.
It was also learned that Anoop has close links with several young actors and politicians in the state. He was arrested on August 28 along with Kannada television star D. Anikha and Rijosh Raveendran, a Palakkad resident.
Last month, the ED had also sent Bineesh a notice under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act and asked him to give a list of assets he has.
The Enforcement Director strongly suspects that these are companies that exist only on paper and are involved in money laundering and foreign exchange transactions. There are indications that the ones arrested in the Bengaluru drug racket were involved in money laundering under the cover of these companies.
The ED had also directed the state Registration Department to prepare a list of his assets and to see that there was no transfer or sale of his assets without the agency’s knowledge.
