Thiruvananthapuram | Kerala Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala on Wednesday refuted allegations that ED raids at Pinarayi Vijayan's residences were a "Congress-BJP operation" and claimed that it was the CPI(M) which had a partnership with the saffron party.
Chennithala, speaking to reporters here, said that the CPI(M) has to explain why their bond with the BJP has failed, leading to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) action.
He also rejected the CPI(M) claims that the raids followed a meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister V D Satheesan a day ago.
The minister said that a meeting between the PM and Kerala CM was necessary for the state and part of routine government work.
"Pinarayi Vijayan has met the PM so many times when he was CM," he pointed out and said there was no need to connect the meeting with the raids.
Chennithala also termed as a "fixed refrain" the CPI(M) allegation that the raids were an outcome of an arrangement between the Congress and BJP.
"There is no need for that. Everyone knows what the Congress, BJP and CPI(M) stand for. All I want to ask is what happened to the people who entered into partnerships. They (CPI(M) and BJP) had a partnership. The biggest connection was between them. They need to tell people how that partnership ended and why," he contended.
Chennithala further said that the Home Department and police of Kerala had no information about the raid by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
"We were not informed and police assistance was not sought. ED used central forces for carrying out the raids," he said.
A total of 10 premises in Kerala, including the rental house of the 81-year-old former CM in the state capital here, a location in Kannur and houses of key persons of CMRL, a private entity, are being raided by ED as part of its investigation against his daughter, Veena T, in the CMRL money laundering case.
The action was taken a day after the Kerala High Court dismissed a writ petition filed by CMRL seeking to quash the ED proceedings in the case, thereby allowing the central agency to continue its probe.
As per the ED's case, registered under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in 2024, CMRL made an illegal payment of Rs 1.72 crore to Veena's company, Exalogic Solutions, during 2017 to 2020, even though the IT firm had not provided any service to the company.
Following the raids, CPI(M) general secretary M A Baby, state secretary M V Govindan and other senior Marxist leaders alleged it as "politically motivated" and a "heinous attack" on the party and Vijayan.
Protests were held by the CPI(M) at various places in the state, including Vijayan's home in Kannur, which was also searched by the ED.