In a surprise move, officials of the Enforcement Directorate (ED), probing the monthly pay-off case interrogated CMRL MD Sasidharan Kartha at his home on Wednesday after he skipped the summons of the agency.
The case involves the firm owned by Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s daughter Veena Vijayan.
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Kartha cited ill health as the reason for not appearing for interrogation before the agency.
The ED had issued a notice to Sasidharan Kartha asking him to appear before it at its office in Kochi on Monday. As he failed to turn up at the office on Monday, the ED issued another notice asking him to appear before the agency’s Kochi office on Tuesday. However, he skipped the interrogation on Tuesday too.
Following this, ED sleuths visited Kartha at his house in Aluva and interrogated him. The ED reportedly recovered some crucial documents from Kartha’s residence.
CMRL’s Chief Finance Officer KS Suresh Kumar, IT Officer Anju, and Chief Manager Chandrasekaran appeared before the agency on Monday. They were interrogated by the ED officials for about 24 hours.
It has been reported that that the CMRL refused to produce its documents signed with Exalogic Solutions before the ED. In an explanation to the ED, it stated that the documents relating to the financial deal are confidential as it is a part of the Income Tax Department’s settlement procedures.
The Income Tax Interim Settlement Board (ITISB) has already completed its formalities, hence no other agency is entitled to access the relevant documents, the company said. The CMRL also quoted sections 245(G) and 245(I) of the Income Tax Act to corroborate their argument
In March 2017, the CMRL signed an agreement with Exalogic Solutions, the firm owned by Veena Vijayan. As per the agreement t, a monthly payment of Rs 5 lakh should be given to Veena and Rs 3 lakh to Exalogic Solutions.
The Kochi-based company had given Rs 1.72 crore to the IT firm from 2016 to 2018. The ITISB has found that the CMRL has paid Rs.1.72 crore to Veena and her firm without providing any service to them
The Central agency has acted based on the report by the Income Tax Interim Settlement Board (ITSIB) in August 2023 stating that Veena and her firm Exalogic Solutions had received Rs.1.72 crore as monthly payments from the CMRL despite there being no evidence of any services given in return.
The ED probe will include the individuals and entities on the record of the ITSIB order. Besides Veena Vijayan, the role of CMRL and the Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation (KSIDC), which holds 13.4% shares in CMRL, will also come under the ambit of probe.
