ED questioning of Vijayan's close aide enters 2nd day
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Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's close aide CM Ravindran
Kochi (Kerala) : Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's close aid C.M Ravindran is facing ED's questioning for the second day today.
Ravindran on Thursday finally turned up before the Enforcement Directorate (ED), after three previous notices given to him.
He was let off late night after 13 hours of questioning. The ED asked him to come with all the documents to prove his known sources of income and tax payments.
Only the other day, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan wrote to PM Modi complaining about the national probe agencies' manner of working in the gold smuggling and other cases.
The Kerala high court on Thursday dismissed Ravindran's petition seeking to spare him ED's lengthy questioning.
The ED has summoned him for his alleged closeness to Swapna Suresh, the prime accused in the gold smuggling case.
Besides this, the ED has also received several complaints regarding his business dealings, IANS report says.
When ED first summoned him earlier last month, Ravindran couldn't make it after being tested covid positive.
Two more notices were given to him, on both the occasions he got admitted to the state-run Medical College hospital here being unwell following post Covid complications.
Ravindran got discharged from the hospital at the end of last week, and in his letter to the ED sent through his counsel, he sought two weeks time to appear before them.
Ignoring his two-week request, the ED served him a notice on Tuesday asking him to come to the Kochi office on Thursday.
While the opposition Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have gone hammer and tongs at Vijayan for allegedly shielding Ravindran, Vijayan has time and again come to the defence of his close aide and has accused the national agencies of being vindictive.
Ravindran, a CPI(M) nominee, was posted in Vijayan's office after bypassing rules regarding his educational qualifications and age.
A native of Kozhikode district, Ravindran was on the personal staff of party leader Kodiyeri Balakrishnan from 2006-11, when Balakrishnan was the Home Minister in the V.S. Achuthanandan government.
IANS report with edits