India News | ED Raid: CPI Extends Support to Senior Leader Moideen; Alleges Politics Behind the Move
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. The ruling CPI(M) in Kerala on Friday extended full support to its senior leader and MLA A C Moideen whose house was raided by the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case two days ago and alleged that the Central agency's searches were part of "political vendetta".
Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 25 (PTI) The ruling CPI(M) in Kerala on Friday extended full support to its senior leader and MLA A C Moideen whose house was raided by the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case two days ago and alleged that the Central agency's searches were part of "political vendetta".
Describing Moideen as a "decent politician", party state secretary M V Govindan alleged that the raid was conducted at his house in Wadakkancherry with "deliberate political interference" to keep him under the shadow of suspicion.
The ED on Wednesday said it had frozen bank and fixed deposits worth Rs 28 lakh of Moideen and his wife, a day after conducting searches against him and others in the money laundering case linked to the alleged Rs 150 crore fraud in the party-controlled Karuvannur cooperative bank.
"The motive behind the ED's statement against Moideen is politics. There is no substance in what the Central agency is saying. The raid was conducted, even without questioning him, in the backdrop of the upcoming Puthuppally bypoll," Govindan told a press conference here.
He further alleged that it was part of the attempt (by the BJP-led Union government) to use the ED to destroy opposition parties across India.
The Left leader criticised the media for giving "undue" significance and space for the ED raid in Moideen's house.
He also hit out at the opposition Congress on the issue saying that they were silent in the interference made by the Central agency in the southern state.
When asked about the row over the controversial financial transactions between a private minerals company and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's daughter T Veena and her IT firm, Govindan said she had remitted tax for all the money received.
The former state minister for cooperation and industries, A C Moideen (67) currently represents the Kunnamkulam constituency in the state Assembly.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had said that the raids were conducted on the premises of Moideen and some others to probe "benamis and beneficiaries who siphoned off bank funds of more than Rs 150 crore from Karuvannur Service Cooperative Bank Ltd".
The searches, launched at five locations across Kerala on Tuesday, also led to the "seizure of 36 properties valued at Rs 15 crore, being proceeds of crime," it had said in a statement.
Two orders were issued for freezing bank deposits and fixed deposits worth Rs 28 lakh found to be in the "possession of" Moideen and his wife, the ED said.
It said the probe has found that "on the instructions of certain persons, who were district-level leaders and committee members of certain political party and governed the bank, loans were disbursed by the bank manager through the agent in cash to non-member benamis by mortgaging properties of poor members without their knowledge and laundered to the benefit of the accused".
"Many such benami loans were disbursed on the instructions of A C Moideen," the federal probe agency alleged.
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)