Illegal transactions: ED grills Bineesh Kodiyeri

Bengaluru

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Saturday subjected Bineesh Kodiyeri, son of CPI(M)’s Kerala state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, to a marathon grilling over a series of illegal money transactions worth crores of rupees with alleged drug dealer and long-time aide Mohammed Anoop.

The questioning went on till late at night. According to sources, Bineesh was either giving vague rep­lies or not cooperating and that is why the questioning dragged on.

He is currently in ED custody and is expected to be quizzed by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) for pumping money into the account of Anoop, who’s suspected to have peddled drugs in Bengaluru for a few years till he was nabbed in August. Bineesh was arrested by ED Thursday afternoon under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002.

According to sources, huge unaccounted cash deposits were made in Bineesh’s accounts in Kerala and the same were later transferred to his associate in Bengaluru.

In a statement by the ED headquarters in Delhi, the agency said a money trail led the probe team to Bineesh’s bank accounts in Kerala where it found huge cash deposits were made.

Sources were quoted in the media as saying Bineesh had remitted money totalling over Rs1 crore into the bank account of Anoop from different accounts over time. Anoop, who had been taken into ED custody for questioning in mid-October, had confessed Bineesh was his boss and he was only acting on his directions in Bengaluru.

Whether Bineesh knew about Anoop’s drug trade and continued funding it is yet to be established and is expected to be probed by NCB, the ED sources said.

Meanwhile, Bineesh’s elder brother Binoy and advocates are planning to move the Karnataka HC against ED for having denied audience with the CPI(M) leader’s son.

In another development, Advocate Abraham, son of senior CPM leader and former LDF convener MM Lawrence, quit the party over the issue of Bineesh. He later joined the BJP.