Money laundering case: ED moves SC against Karnataka HC bail order to Kerala CPM leader Kodiyeri’s son

The agency in its plea said that “averments made in the complaints, statements of the accused, the affidavit filed by the officials of the Enforcement Directorate clearly disclose that there are sufficient material to contend that the accused committed the offence of money laundering”.

“Documents clearly disclose that there are shady transactions under which huge amounts were deposited, transferred and withdrawn. There is no proper explanation for any of these transactions. The cash deposits as highlighted in the complaint totals Rs 6 crore. But no such transactions were disclosed by Bineesh in his Income Tax Returns,” said the probe agency in its appeal against the HC order dated October 28, 2021.

It said the HC had failed to appreciate that he had filed five bail applications, all of which were rejected and “there is no change of circumstances in the present case”.

Bineesh was arrested on October 29, 2020, in the course of the investigation after 60 grams MDMA pills, Rs 2.2 lakh cash and other documents were recovered from one Mohammed Anoop, who is the accused number 1 in the case, by the Narcotics Control Bureau from Bengaluru. Anoop’s arrest led the NCB sleuths to his alleged associate Rajesh Ravindram from whom it seized “40 grams MDMA pills and 180 blots of LSD (2.9 grams)”, besides several documents.

The agency said Anoop in his statement made under Section 50(3) of the PMLA Act admitted that he dealt in narcotics and was “closely linked with Bineesh”.

“There are such glaring transactions to connect accused No. 1 to his drug peddling business, who had money transactions with Bineesh,” said the agency.

It added that Bineesh’s driver Anikuttan, “deposited lakhs of rupees in Bengaluru and then withdrew the money in Kerala. The said driver had not appeared before the ED officials to date in spite of issuance of summons. The respondent herein has also not explained as to how his driver could deposit so much money in the bank account”.

The ED said that though Bineesh “contends that he earns huge sums of money from various businesses and he earned huge income while he was in Dubai, no satisfactory materials are forthcoming to substantiate the same”.

Granting him bail, the HC had observed that though the prosecution’s contention was that Bineesh financed the drug dealings of Anoop, the former is not arrayed as an accused in the NCB case but was only being prosecuted for money laundering.