Will NCB pick Bineesh Kodiyeri? CPIM waits with bated breath

Thiruvananthapuram :All is not well with CPI(M) in Kerala, after Enforcement Directorate arrested its state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan's son, Bineesh Kodiyeri whose custody period ends Wednesday.

Speculations, reportedly, are rife that Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) might pick him, as his close friend and business associate Anoop Mohammed has been in its custody, and jailed in Bengaluru for over a month now.

Perhaps, CPI-M has never been in a more demoralizing situation before, that too in the face of upcoming polls.

Summoned for questioning in Bengaluru by the ED, Bineesh was arrested on October 29. He is being questioned under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

Indications are a lot of things have been unearthed, which do not augur well for Bineesh and in turn could put the CPI-M in poor light, according to IANS

Earlier this week, the local body polls were announced to take place in three phases -- on December 8, 10 and 14.

All eyes are now on the NCB. Earlier, it came to pick him twice but backed out, since the ED wanted more time.

If the NCB is given Bineesh's custody on Wednesday, it could well be the biggest setback for the CPI-M.

The opposition Congress and the BJP will be using this as their biggest campaign point.

The convenor of the CPI-M led Left Democratic Front, A. Vijayaraghavan, has started to counter all the charges the Pinarayi Vijayan government is facing from the opposition.

He pointed out that already one opposition legislator, M.C. Kamaruddin, of the Indian Union Muslim League is in judicial custody after the company that he headed went broke and left hundreds of investors in the lurch.

"K.M. Shaji, Kamaruddin's party colleague, is another one who is being questioned by the ED. Another of their legislator colleague and former state minister, V.K. Ebrahim Kunju, is also in the dock."

"Then you have the bar scam, in which a businessman has said that the Leader of Opposition, Ramesh Chennithala, when he was the state Congress president, and two former Congress ministers, K. Babu and V.S. Sivakumar, were all paid money. You also have the solar scam... So you just wait and see, there will be quite a few present day opposition legislators who will be in jail soon," said Vijayaraghavan.

Meanwhile Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said: "The media appears to be engaged in only criticising the present state government, which has done so many things for the common man, but they ignore all the corruption news of the opposition and blow out of proportion any issues of the present state government".

IANS report with edits