Pinarayi Vijayan, former Chief Minister of Keralam and current Leader of the Opposition.
| Photo Credit: ANI
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has sent a detailed report to the State Police Chief of Keralam seeking registration of a separate first information report (FIR) under the Prevention of Corruption Act and other relevant laws against Leader of the Opposition and former Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, former Public Works Minister P.A. Mohamed Riyas, and T. Veena, who is Mr. Vijayan’s daughter and Mr. Riyas’s spouse, in the Exalogic–Cochin Minerals and Rutile Limited (CMRL) pay-off case.
The report, which was sent on Monday (September 7, 2026) reportedly stated that the evidence recovered by the Central agency in the case under Section 66(2) of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) warranted registration of a case.
The CPI(M) has been on a collision course with the ED, accusing the agency of carrying out a political hit job targeting Mr. Vijayan and his family on behalf of the Central government.
Sources in ED said it would carry out a thorough corruption-related investigation once an FIR has been registered.
Charges in ED report
The report accused Mr. Vijayan of receiving a bribe of ₹3.28 crore through his daughter, based on the alleged admission of CMRL’s former Chief Financial Officer Suresh Kumar. Mr. Riyas was accused of “receipt of bribes and transfer of such bribe funds to Dubai through Veena and known associates.” Ms. Veena allegedly “assisted Mr. Vijayan and Mr. Riyas in collecting and routing bribe funds.” Exalogic Solutions Private Limited was allegedly used for “routing sham payments.” S.N. Sasidharan Kartha, Managing Director of CMRL, was accused of paying bribes, while CMRL’s sister concern Empower India Capital Investments Private Limited was accused of transferring bribes.
Last month, the ED claimed to have found “certain handwritten accounts maintained by Ms. Veena pertaining to ₹85 lakh allegedly transferred to Dubai.” The notes contained “names of persons, amounts handled, spent” besides the amount transferred to Dubai. All persons named in Ms. Veena’s handwritten accounts, along with the individual who had provided the SIM card, were covered during the search, according to an ED release.
The Kochi zonal office of the ED had conducted search operations at nine premises in Kozhikode on August 18 under the PMLA in connection with the case.
In May, the ED claimed to have frozen ₹18.36 crore across 242 accounts identified during search operations at multiple locations, including Mr. Vijayan’s rented house in Thiruvananthapuram and his ancestral home in Kannur.
The agency launched the investigation following findings of the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) into alleged corporate fraud and bribe payments. SFIO investigations revealed fictitious cash expenses of ₹182 crore made by CMRL over a span of 15 years, allegedly used to bribe various persons, the ED said.
One of the fake expenses booked by CMRL was towards payments made to Ms. Veena. Exalogic Solutions Private Limited, the now-defunct company owned by her, had allegedly received fraudulent payments totalling ₹2.78 crore from CMRL under the guise of IT consultancy services.
Additionally, Empower India Capital Investments Private Limited, operated by Sasidharan Kartha, extended loans of ₹50 lakh to Exalogic despite the firm failing to make timely repayments, the SFIO alleged.
Published – September 08, 2026 12:52 pm IST
