The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has directed the State Registration Department to submit the sale deed and encumbrance certificates of all the properties owned by Bineesh Kodiyeri, son of CPI (M) State secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, as part of its probe into his alleged financial transactions with one of the accused in the Bengaluru drug bust case.
The letter sent by the Assistant Director of the ED in Kochi stated that no transactions of the immovable assets of Mr. Kodiyeri should be carried out without prior information as it was investigating a case against him under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
As these properties are under investigation, any transaction in relation with the immovable assets of Mr. Kodiyeri must not be done without prior information, it said.
The ED said that the investments made by Mr. Kodiyeri are being investigated and are suspected to be part of his proceeds of crime committed under Sections 16, 17 and 18 of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act and other related offences.
The Registration Department has asked nearly 315 sub-registrars in the State to file a report as per the directions given by the ED. The information on the assets owned by Mr. Kodiyeri could be collected within two days as they are available online, according to senior officials of the Registration Department.
The ED had earlier questioned Mr. Kodiyeri after the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) suspected that he had financial transactions with Muhammed Anoop, one of the accused in Bengaluru drug bust case. The agency was probing whether there was any illicit fund flow between them. The ED had also examined two now-defunct firms floated by Mr. Kodiyeri and others in 2015.
The agency was also looking into his sources of income and investments. It was also probing whether Mr. Kodiyeri had any interests in a currency trading firm that had recently come under the ambit of its investigation into the gold smuggling case .
