The government will move legally against the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) probe into the Masala bonds of the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB) and the decision to summon KIIFB Chief Executive Officer (CEO) K.M. Abraham and Deputy Managing Director Vikramjit Singh for questioning.
“The KIIFB has officially informed the ED that the CEO and the Deputy Managing Director will not be able to appear before the officials in Kochi. We are not going to obey. Let’s see what will be done,” Dr. Isaac said in a Facebook post on Friday.
Bitter experience
The ED team had summoned a senior officer in the KIIFB to Kochi in connection with the Masala bond issue before registering the case. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had mentioned it in the press conference on Thursday. The bitter experience the official faced has made the KIIFB CEO to write to the Chief Secretary. The government is thinking about legal measures.
Dr. Isaac said the summons were prepared and leaked to the media before being served on the two KIIFB officials to make political mileage. There was no clarity on the questions. Nowhere, he said, it had been clarified why the ED investigation was for.
The Finance Minister said the Supreme Court had spelled out how to send summons to appear as part of investigation. Clear reasons should be recorded to send summons and this had been violated. The ED officials of the Kochi unit think that the Supreme Court orders were not applicable to them.
