Kochi:The sleuths of Directorate of Enforcement (ED) are inspecting bank lockers of Kerala Opposition Leader Pinarayi Vijayan’s daughter Veena T in connection with a money laundering case.
The ED sleuths are carrying out searches at HDFC bank near Ayurveda Hospital, Asianet News reported.
She was questioned the other day in connection with the case in Kochi.
Veena, daughter of former Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, was grilled by the ED sleuths for nine hours in connection with the Money Laundering case related to getting financial benefits from Cochin Minerals and Rutile Ltd (CMRL) at Kochi on June 17.
She is accused of receiving Rs 2.78 crore from CMRL without providing any services to it by her now-defunct Exalogic IT company.
ED had summoned her on June 12 when she could not turn up citing health reasons.
The agency had questioned CMRL managing director Sasidharan S. Kartha’s daughter Shiby S. Kartha, Saran S. Kartha, joint managing director of CMRL, and Jaya S Kartha, wife of Sasidharan Kartha.
The alleged crime surfaced in January 2019 when the Income Tax Department stumbled upon traces of some fictitious expenses worth Rs 130 crore during raids at CMRL which took the matter before the Income Tax Settlement Commission which found that CMRL gave bribes to different individuals.
This led to the starting of an investigation by the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) ending up in unearthing of fictitious cash expenses of Rs 182 crore for 15 years used by CMRL to pay bribes.
Finally the matter was taken cognizance by the ED which registered a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) on the basis of a prosecution complaint filed by the SFIO before a court in Ernakulam in April 2025. During the course of the raids, the agency had frozen ₹18.36 crore in 242 accounts identified during the search operations held in the pay-off case.
ED searches Veena T”s bank lockers
