Anoop Mohammed, a native of Kochi; Rijesh Raveendran of Thrissur; and Niyaz Muhammed, from Kochi — these three were the Keralites connected so far to the drugs case that has rocked the Kannada film industry. However, now with the arrest of Bineesh Kodiyeri for alleged money laundering in connection with the drugs racket, the case has gained a political angle.
The investigation team had found that the hotel, which was started in 2015 by Anoop, was a drugs trading hub for foreign students and others. Rijesh and arrested Kannada serial actress D. Anikha have said in their statements to the Narcotics Control Bureau that the drugs trade was done under the cover of the hotel.
The hotel remained shut for a while. According to Anoop’s statement, its operations were resumed in 2019 with the help of friends, including Bineesh, after renaming it as 'Spice Bay Restaurant’. Bineesh and some young actors and singers in Malayalam had shared the promotion video of Spice Bay on Facebook.
Cinema ties unmasked
Following the arrests of Anoop, Rijesh and Anikha, the probe first moved towards the connection of the Kannada film world to the drugs racket, resulting in the arrests of actresses Ragini Dwivedi and Sanjjanaa Galrani. The investigators also found that drugs were reaching Bengaluru from Kerala. The statement of Niyaz Muhammed, who was arrested in the case led against the actresses, revealed the drug links of those in the Kannada-Malayalam film industry. It was later discovered that drugs bought using cryptocurrency were being smuggled in from abroad through various foreign post offices in India.
The Central Crime Branch (CCB) under the Bengaluru police, which is also probing the drugs case, may seek Bineesh’s custody for questioning. On September 9, the Enforcement Directorate’s Kochi unit had questioned Bineesh. Most of the questions were related to the commission received by the accused in the gold smuggling case. Subsequently, the ED issued a letter to the Registration Department asking it to stop any transfer of Bineesh's assets in Kerala. A phone number suspected to be of KT Ramees, one of the main accused in the gold smuggling case, was found in Anoop's phone. It is also suspected that gold was used as a "metal currency" to pay for drug trafficking. Bineesh’s forex firm also under investigation.
The ED is also investigating the financial sources of B Capitals Forex Trading, a company run under the ownership of Bineesh. The company that Bineesh had started in partnership with Dharmadam native Anas Valiyaparambath on June 15, 2015, had not been ling its annual reports. The Registrar of Companies had frozen the activities of the company by pointing this out. There are indications that the annual reports were not led to hide the details of investors and the company’s activities.
This story was published on Onmanorama
