The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has summoned T. Veena, daughter of former Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, asking her to appear before the investigators at its zonal office in Kochi on June 12, 2026 for questioning in connection with the money-laundering case linked to the Cochin Minerals and Rutile Limited (CMRL) pay-off case.’
Besides Ms. Veena, the central agency has asked Sasidharan Kartha, chairman and managing director of CMRL, and senior officials of the company to appear before it as part of the probe.
The ED had on May 27, 2026 raided the residences of Mr. Vijayan in Kannur and Thiruvananthapuram as part of the probe into whether his daughter and former IT consultant Ms. Veena’s now-defunct firm Exalogic had received sizeable monthly retainers from CMRL, a private mining company, during the 2017-2021 period allegedly without rendering any tangible service.
It is for the first time that Ms. Veena has been summoned by the ED for questioning. She will be told to submit the documents related to the alleged IT consultancy services offered by her now-defunct firm to CMRL.
The ED had earlier frozen ₹18.36 crore in 242 accounts identified during the search operations held in the pay-off case. It had claimed that the searches held as part of the probe yielded several incriminating records, accounts, digital evidences, investments and fixed deposits in banks. Besides Mr. Vijayan’s residences at Kannur and Thiruvananthapuram, the ED had held searches in the residence of former Minister and Ms. Veena’s husband P.A. Mohamed Riyas.
A special court for the trial of Companies Act offences in Kochi on June 8 allowed the ED to obtain copies of documents collected by the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) in connection with the money-laundering case linked to the CMRL pay-off case.
Ernakulam Additional District and Sessions Judge Suresh Babu V.P.M. allowed a petition filed by the ED seeking copies of documents gathered by the SFIO, which had investigated the alleged fictitious expenses submitted by the CMRL before the Income Tax Settlement Commission. The agency had reportedly sought 134 documents collected by the SFIO during its probe into the links between the CMRL and Ms. Veena’s now-defunct firm.
Published - June 09, 2026 10:36 am IST
Source: The Hindu - India News
