CMRL money laundering case: Pinarayi Vijayan’s daughter Veena T asked to appear before ED. What are the charges?
The Enforcement Directorate summoned Veena T, the daughter of former Kerala chief minister and CPI(M) leader Pinarayi Vijayan, on Tuesday for questioning in a case
The Enforcement Directorate summoned Veena T, the daughter of former Kerala chief minister and CPI(M) leader Pinarayi Vijayan, on Tuesday for questioning in a case related to money laundering, as per a PTI report. PTI spoke to officials who said that Veena T has been asked to depose on 12 June at the ED's zonal office in Kochi. Her statement will be recorded under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the officials told PTI. Besides Veena, one other person has been summoned by the agency. What is the case against Veena T? The case against the former CM's daughter pertains to allegations of money laundering against a sand mining company based out of Kerala called Cochin Minerals And Rutile Ltd (CMRL) and Veena's now defunct company Exalogic Solutions Private Limited.
Last month, the ED raided Veena, who was living in her father's rented home in Thiruvananthapuram, along with some other locations. The probe revolves around an allegation that CMRL made fraudulent payments amounting to ₹2.78 crore to Exalogic Solutions under the guise of IT consultancy services. As per the ED, another company, Empower India Capital Investment Private Limited (EICPL), which was operation by Sasidharan Kartha, the managing director of CMRL, also extended ₹50 lakh worth of loans to Exalogic despite it failing to make repayments on time. The ED is claiming that both Veena and the Kartha-led management of CMRL generated "proceeds of crime" in this process. What ED told Kerala HC ED's inputs shared before Kerala High Court also mention the findings allegedly unearthed during the search operation carried out in January 2019 by the Cochin Income Tax Department, in which it is alleged that CMRL had inflated its expenditure by booking fictitious cash expenses under the heads of "transportation and sludge handling, aggregating to ₹133.82 crores during the financial years 2012-13 to 2018-19," as per ANI.
The IT Department concluded that such "inflated expenditure enabled the generation of unaccounted cash, which was subsequently utilised for making illegal payments to politicians, political parties, media houses and public servants." CMRL is a publicly listed company. It was incorporated on 18 August, 1989. Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation (KSIDC) holds around 13 per cent of its shareholding, while public shareholders hold around 48.75 per cent. While giving statements to Income Tax authorities, the company's Chief Financial Officer and Kartha had said that these payments were made to "ensure the smooth functioning of the company's business operations in the face of perceived threats of closure and environmental challenges." As per ED, it told the court that it is relying upon loose sheets that were allegedly seized from the residence of S Suresh Kumar, *the former* Chief Financial Officer of the CMRL, during the search proceedings, as well as statements recorded from him under Section 132(4) of the Income Tax Act and statements recorded from the Managing Director under the same provision.
The BriefWire