Thiruvananthapuram. ED raided the Thiruvananthapuram house of former Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan on Wednesday morning. Apart from Vijayan’s house, ED also raided 11 other places. The raid came after the Kerala High Court refused to quash the ED investigation in the Cochin Minerals and Rutile Limited (CMRL) company case involving Pinarayi Vijayan’s daughter Veena. It is alleged that CMRL showed fake expenditure of Rs 133.82 crore on transportation and sludge handling between 2012 and 2018. It is alleged that this amount was given to leaders, parties, media institutions and many government officials.
In the year 2024, ED had registered a case against Veena Vijayan and her IT company under the Money Laundering Act. The ED had registered the case on the complaint of the Serious Fraud Investigation Office. Pinarayi Vijayan’s daughter has a company named Xlogic Solutions Private Limited. It is alleged that CMRL gave about Rs 1.72 crore to Veena’s company, but Veena’s company did not provide any software or other services. CMRL had shown the amount paid to Veena Vijayan under the head of software and marketing services. In the year 2019, the Income Tax Department had raided CMRL. At that time, allegedly many irregularities were found there.
The Income Tax Settlement Board had also said that CMRL had exaggerated its expenses. It was also said that the payment made to Veena Vijayan’s company was suspicious. After this, the Central Government got the matter investigated by the Serious Fraud Investigation Office in the year 2024. The Serious Fraud Investigation Office had also registered a case of fraud under the Companies Act in this matter. This case falls under the category of crime under PMLA. After which ED registered a case and started investigation. Recently, Kerala High Court had rejected the petition of CMRL and its officers. The petition demanded ED investigation and cancellation of the summons. Kerala High Court said that ED has full right to investigate and issue summons. The court had said that income tax settlement and PMLA are different.
