Thiruvananthapuram: Enforcement Directorate (ED) officers on Saturday visited the residence of former chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan near Bakery Junction to serve summons in the CMRL-Exalogic payoff case. As Vijayan, the leader of the opposition in the assembly, was away and his personal staff refused to accept the notice on his behalf, ED officials pasted the summons on a pillar at his rented house.Vijayan and his family members were in Kannur when the ED officials came. The notice directed him to appear before the central agency next Friday for questioning.Former minister and CPM state secretariat member V Sivankutty, who reached Vijayan’s residence, told the media that pasting the summons on the residence of the leader of the opposition was unprecedented and unacceptable. “ED officials behaved as though they were dealing with an absconding person. This is highly objectionable,” he said.“He went from here to Alappuzha and then to Kannur. After completing a two-day meeting, he will return to Thiruvananthapuram. If they wanted, they could have served the notice directly to him,” he said.Sivankutty’s reaction indicated that CPM functionaries had expected ED to send the summons by post, as is customary.He said ED officers had initially asked Vijayan’s staff to accept the summons on his behalf. When they refused, the officials asked them to sign as witnesses to the pasting of the notice. After the staff declined that request as well, the ED officers pasted the notice in the presence of police personnel, who acted as witnesses, he said.CPM sources said Vijayan was unlikely to appear before ED on Friday. He is expected to cite the ongoing assembly session, scheduled to continue until Oct 29, as the reason for his inability to attend. He may also refer to his petition pending before Supreme Court challenging Kerala HC’s order directing the registration of an FIR against him in the payoff case.The case followed a letter from ED to the state police chief under Section 66(2) of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), seeking the registration of vigilance cases against Vijayan, his daughter T Veena and her husband, former minister P A Mohamed Riyas. ED alleged that CMRL had paid Rs 3.28 crore to Exalogic Solutions, a now-defunct company owned by Veena, without receiving corresponding IT consultancy services. The state govt instead constituted a special investigation team (SIT) to conduct a preliminary inquiry into ED’s findings.A single bench of Kerala HC quashed govt order constituting the SIT and directed the vigilance director to register an FIR. A division bench on Thursday dismissed pleas by Vijayan and others challenging the single bench order. Following the single bench order, Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) registered two cases — one over alleged payments from CMRL to Exalogic Solutions and the other over alleged hawala transactions involving Riyas. Vijayan is the prime accused in the first case and Riyas in the second. ED filed two enforcement case information reports (ECIRs) based on these FIRs.
