Kochi: A day after Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi complaining about the manner in which the national probe agencies are working in the gold smuggling and other cases, his closest aide C.M. Ravindran arrived at the ED office here, for the second day in succession.
It was on Thursday that Ravindran finally turned up before the Enforcement Directorate (ED), after ducking three previous notices given to him, and he was let off late night after 13 hours of questioning. The ED asked him to come with all the documents to prove his known sources of income and tax payments.
On Friday morning, he again arrived at the ED office and the second round of questioning has begun.
Incidentally, on Thursday, the Kerala high court dismissed a petition of Ravindran, who wanted the court to direct the ED to avoid lengthy questioning.
Ravindran has been summoned by the ED for his alleged closeness to the prime accused in the gold smuggling case, Swapna Suresh. Besides this, the ED has also received several complaints regarding his business dealings.
The first notice was served to him early last month, but he could not appear before the ED after he turned Covid positive.
Read: ED visits Kerala labour organisation in gold probe
Later, he was served two more notices, but on both the occasions he got admitted to the state-run Medical College hospital here on the pretext of being unwell following post Covid complications.
Ravindran got discharged from the hospital at the end of last week, and in his letter to the ED sent through his counsel, he sought two weeks time to appear before them.
With the ED ignoring his two-week request, the latest notice was served on him on Tuesday asking him to come to the Kochi office on Thursday.
While the opposition Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have gone hammer and tongs at Vijayan for allegedly shielding Ravindran, Vijayan has time and again come to the defence of his close aide and has accused the national agencies of being vindictive.
Ravindran, a CPI(M) nominee, was posted in Vijayan's office after bypassing rules regarding his educational qualifications and age.
A native of Kozhikode district, Ravindran has been a vital cog between the party and the top leaders of the CPI(M) and was on the personal staff of party leader Kodiyeri Balakrishnan from 2006-11, when Balakrishnan was the Home Minister in the V.S. Achuthanandan government.
When Vijayan took over as the Chief Minister in 2016, Ravindran began wielding major clout and his alleged close proximity to disgraced senior IAS officer M. Sivasankar is often talked about.
IANS Report
