The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has summoned Bineesh Kodiyeri, son of Kerala CPI (M) state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, to its Bengaluru office on Tuesday to question him in connection with the alleged drug funding charges.
He was issued a notice on Saturday; a senior officer who is part of the investigation said adding he was also asked to produce details of his properties. He was asked to appear before the ED office in Shanthinagar in Bengaluru. There are reports he will also be questioned by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB).
Last month he was interrogated by the ED in Kochi for more than 11 hours and later the Central agency had frozen transactions of his properties. Trouble began for the second son of the state secretary after Bengaluru drug racket accused Anoop Mohammad gave a statement to the NCB in which he mentioned his name. After his arrest he said Kodiyeri had helped him a lot in his “business venture”.
Later his name also figured prominently in the call list of Mohammad. There were also allegations that he allegedly helped Swapna Suresh, main accused in the gold smuggling case, to slip out of the state in July and helped her find a hideout in the city.
{{/usCountry}}Later his name also figured prominently in the call list of Mohammad. There were also allegations that he allegedly helped Swapna Suresh, main accused in the gold smuggling case, to slip out of the state in July and helped her find a hideout in the city.
{{/usCountry}}Kodiyeri later admitted that he knew Mohammad and helped him to open a hotel in Bengaluru in 2015 but he was not aware of his alleged drug dealings. But, later the ED found that two shell companies floated by Kodiyeri, B Capital Solutions and B Capital Forex, were allegedly involved in many shoddy deals. Floated in 2015, both firms had failed to file tax returns and other formalities and the ED suspects these firms were floated for alleged money laundering and hawala transactions. Kodiyeri was not available for comment.
During investigation into the 30 kg gold smuggling through the UAE consulate, the ED has also found that there is close link between the smuggling and psychedelic drug cases. The smuggling case came to light on July 5 after 30 kg gold was seized from a consignment that came in the name of the United Arab Emirates consular office in Thiruvananthapuram. And the drug surfaced on August 28 after the arrest of Anoop Mohammad and two others in Bengaluru. Drug seizure involving Kannada actors is a different case.