Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala): The Enforcement Directorate has summoned Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's additional private secretary C M Raveendran in connection with certain appointments in the ministry of information technology.
ED served a notice to CM Raveendran on Wednesday, asking him to appear at the Kochi office on Friday.
Raveendran is summoned based on former IT Secretary and CM's former Principal Secretary M Sivasankar's statements. M Sivasankar was arrested by ED for money laundering in connection with the Thiruvananthapuram gold smuggling case last week.
During investigating into the gold smuggling case, ED came across alleged irregularities and commissions in some other projects as well.
Also read: Court permits ED to interrogate gold case accused
According to officials, Raveendran was summoned on the basis of the statement of Sivasankar.
A party leader from North Kerala, Raveendran has been in the personal staff of Balakrishnan in 2006-11, when he was the Home Minister in V.S. Achuthanandan and later when Achuthanandan became the Leader of Opposition (2011-16) again he was present and when Vijayan took over as Chief Minister in 2016, Raveendran willed major power.
Besides the government, the party (CPI(M) is also in big trouble after the arrest of secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan’s son Bineesh Kodiyeri in connection with the Bengaluru drugs case.
The main accused in the Bengaluru drug case, Anoop Mohammad, in a statement to Narcotics Control Bureau had named Bineesh Kodiyeri, son of Balakrishnan and had said that he had helped him a lot in his business venture.
Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president Mullapally Ramachandran alleged that C M Raveendran, additional private Secretary to CM was involved in the gold smuggling also.
