​Pinarayi Vijayan hits back over CMRL bribery case​

NEW DELHI: Former Keralam chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Wednesday accused the Enforcement Directorate (ED) of politically targeting him through its probe into alleged payments by Cochin Minerals and Rutile Ltd (CMRL).His remarks came after the ED sought an FIR against Vijayan, his daughter Veena T and son-in-law P A Mohamed Riyas over alleged CMRL payments to Veena’s now-defunct firm, Exalogic Solutions.Vijayan, a senior CPM politburo member, was speaking at the centenary celebrations of a cooperative bank when he criticised the ED’s intervention in the Karuvannur bank scam investigation.“While the state police was taking action against those accused of irregularities in the Karuvannur bank scam, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) intervened in the matter allegedly with the intention of making the CPM a culprit,” he said.Vijayan alleged that the central agency had influenced people accused in the case by offering them the opportunity to become approvers.“They did so by influencing those accused of irregularities through offers of making them approver. Such persons were made to say things that the ED wanted them to say. The attempt was to discredit the state’s cooperative sector,” he alleged.He claimed the wider objective was to damage the cooperative banking network in the state.“Their aim was to destroy the cooperative sector which has lakhs of crores of rupees with them. It was not to improve the sector,” Vijayan said.His remarks followed an ED letter to DGP Ravada A Chandrasekhar seeking registration of an FIR against Vijayan, his daughter, son-in-law and others over alleged violations linked to the CMRL case.The ED has alleged that CMRL made fraudulent payments of Rs 2.78 crore to Veena’s now-defunct company, Exalogic Solutions, purportedly for “IT consultancy services”. The agency had searched premises linked to Veena in June and later questioned her.Keralam chief minister V D Satheesan said the ED’s request would not be rejected outright but would first undergo legal scrutiny.“We cannot reject it merely because ED has sent it,” Satheesan said, adding that the government would examine “the seriousness of the allegations made by the ED”.

Satheesan said the letter contained “major allegations against Vijayan and others” and that “law will take its own course”.On allegations that some ministers in the UDF government had previously received money from CMRL, Satheesan said political contributions were a separate issue.“ED has not just mentioned receipt of money from CMRL. There is much more in their letter,” he said.