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CMRL payoffs case: ED summons Pinarayi Vijayan to appear for questioning on Oct 23
Former chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan has been summoned to the ED’s zonal unit office in Kochi on October 23
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The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has issued a notice to former chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan to appear before it for questioning next week regarding the alleged Cochin Minerals and Rutile Limited (CMRL)-Exalogic payoffs, even as the Supreme Court on Friday indicated that it may constitute a special bench during the Dussehra holidays to hear his plea seeking protection from arrest.
Officials familiar with the matter said Vijayan has been summoned to the ED’s zonal unit office in Kochi on October 23. This is the first time that the central agency has summoned him in the case.
On Thursday, the Kerala high court refused to interfere with an order directing the registration of first information reports (FIRs) against Vijayan, his daughter Veena and his son-in-law, former minister PA Mohamed Riyas. The FIRs were filed in connection with alleged financial dealings between CMRL and Veena’s now-defunct firm, Exalogic Solutions Pvt Ltd.
The Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) filed the FIRs following the high court’s direction to investigate alleged corruption and conspiracy over payments CMRL and an associate company made to Exalogic and Veena. Vijayan is named as the first accused in one FIR. Riyas is the first accused in the other. Veena is named as the second accused in both.
Exalogic allegedly received ₹3 lakh a month. Veena was paid ₹5 lakh monthly as a consultant, despite the alleged absence of corresponding services.
Senior Advocate Siddharth Luthra, who appeared for Vijayan in the Supreme Court, told a bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi that his 82-year-old client faces the risk of arrest.
The VACB claimed that Suresh Kumar, a former CMRL chief financial officer, admitted under oath that Veena was paid due to the public relations avenues and her relationship with her father, Vijayan, the then Kerala chief minister.
It registered the FIRs based on an ED finding that CMRL allegedly made monthly payments to Exalogic Solutions, the now-defunct firm of Veena, when Vijayan was the chief minister.
The Kerala high court on October 9 ordered the VACB to register an FIR and initiate an inquiry in the case on activist-lawyer KM Shajahan’s petition seeking directions to charge Vijayan and others based on the ED findings.
One FIR relates to alleged bribes to Vijayan through his daughter and the other to money allegedly routed abroad through hawala channels.
A single-judge bench of the Kerala high court said the ED report contains sufficient information pointing to cognisable offences.
The case came into the limelight in June 2023 when the Income Tax (IT) Interim Settlement Board found that Veena and Exalogic, a software solutions firm in Bengaluru, received monthly ₹1.72 crore payments from CMRL between 2017 and 2019 despite having rendered no services. Exalogic and CMRL signed an agreement in 2017 for software and marketing services to the minerals manufacturer in exchange for compensation.
In January 2019, the IT department raided the CMRL premises and the residences of its managing director, Sasidharan Kartha, and Suresh Kumar. The department subsequently flagged tax evasion through exaggerated expenses. It also found diary entries indicating payments made to prominent political leaders, media houses, trade union leaders, and police officers.
Congress, which returned to power in Kerala this year, and the Bharatiya Janata Party alleged that the monthly payments to Veena and her firm in the absence of any services were essentially bribes paid to Vijayan in exchange for favours to CMRL in the mining sector.
In January 2024, the Union corporate affairs ministry ordered an inquiry into the allegations under the Companies Act. In February that year, the Karnataka high court dismissed Veena’s plea seeking to quash the probe.
In March 2024, the ED registered a case against Veena and CMRL, taking cognisance of the complaint filed as part of the probe. The agency inquired whether the case involved violations under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
In April 2025, a prosecution complaint was filed in a special court in Kochi, charging Veena and CMRL officials over alleged fraudulent payments of ₹2.70 crore benefiting Veena and Exalogic. CMRL officials were charged with alleged fraudulent payments of ₹182 crore under the guise of sluice handling charges and transportation costs.
The ED allegedly found handwritten notes containing names, amounts handled, and money transferred to Dubai. Vijayan has termed the allegations baseless and vowed to fight the charges legally and politically.
