Gold smuggling case: Bineesh may be summoned by ED again

Kochi, Sep 10 (IANS) CPI-M Kerala State Secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan’s son Bineesh Kodiyeri was questioned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for over 11 hours in their office here till 10 p.m. on Wednesday but it now appears his travails are not yet over as he might be summoned again.

State Congress president Mullapally Ramachandran on Thursday said that various national agencies are probing the gold smuggling and the drug dealings and the CPI-M’s senior leader Balakrishnan has a moral obligation to quit his post.

According to those in the know of things, the ED officials had a short meeting soon after the questioning was over and did not appear to be satisfied with the answers given by Bineesh.

The ED team, after analysing the answers given by Bineesh, is likely to ask him to appear before it again, shortly.

Four national agencies are probing the two cases — gold smuggling and drug dealing — which were unravelled in Bengaluru by the Narcotics Control Bureau.

The ED is trying to find out if there was a common thread in the two cases and if Bineesh had a role.

Bineesh has denied any role in locating a hiding place for the prime accused in the gold smuggling case Swapna Suresh in Bengaluru. She was arrested along with her business partner by the NIA in July.

Another reason why the ED had called Bineesh was that he has registered a few companies dealing in financial matters, but had not undertaken the regulatory compliance and they were recently black listed by the authorities.

One more reason is the wide ranging business connections that he has and also partnership ventures in numerous areas, with others.

When the now controversial gold smuggling case surfaced in July after the Customs first arrested a former public relations officer — P. S.Sarith — of the UAE Consulate and the NIA picked up Swapna Suresh, who has links with top police officers and bureaucrats, the speculation in the media was whether Bineesh is also involved.

But it was not until the end of August that his name first surfaced when a Kerala youth Anoop Mohammed was picked up by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in Bengaluru.

Soon came a statement from Bineesh that he and Anoop were friends and he had given a loan of Rs six lakh to him and another Rs 15,000 very recently as he had no money to return home from Bengaluru.

Ramachandran pointed out that Balakrishnan just cannot wash his hands of the matter as his son is now under the scanner of various agencies.

“No one should forget that Bineesh was engaged in all this while staying with Balakrishnan and hence he cannot just wash his hands of the matter saying that he does not know anything. His elder son also has cases against him and it very surprising since the CPI-M is a cadre-based party, but the rules of the party are not applicable to either Balakrishnan or Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan,” said Ramachandran and asked Balakrishnan to quit his post.

–IANS

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