Monthly payment case: ED reaches CMRL MD's house after he skips summons

Kochi: The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) on Wednesday raided Cochin Minerals & Rutile Ltd's (CMRL) MD Sasidharan Kartha's home in the Exalogic monthly payment case, which involves Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's daughter T Veena.

ED sleuths reached Sasidharan's house in Aluva and interrogated him after he failed to appear before the central agency in a summons issued yesterday. Sasidharan skipped the first summons citing health issues.

Chief Finance Officer K S Suresh Kumar, Senior Manager N C Chandrasekharan, and Senior Officer Anju Rachael Kuruvilla, who appeared before the ED on Monday morning, were let go after questioning on Tuesday by 11 am. Chief General Manager P Suresh Kumar and cashier Vasudevan, who had deposed to the Income Tax Department against Exalogic in the monthly payment case, were summoned to the ED office for questioning on Tuesday. Their statements are also crucial in the case registered by the ED under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

CMRL had paid Rs 1.72 crore to Exalogic, owned by Veena. The ED asked CMRL officials to provide documents and details of the payment made to Exalogic. Earlier in January, the Registrar of Companies (ROC) found that the transaction between CMRL and Exalogic constituted an offence under the Anti-Money Laundering Act and the Anti-Corruption Act. Later in March, ED registered a money laundering case against CMRL after the alleged illegal deal with Exalogic Solutions made headlines. Further probe revealed that CMRL donated over Rs 73 crore to politicians, temples and media houses from 2012-2020. But the company tactfully added these transactions to its travel expenditure.