“A huge amount of unaccounted funds was regularly credited to a drug peddler’s account by Bineesh Kodiyeri”, ED

KOCHI/BENGALURU: The Enforcement Directorate, investigating the money transactions behind the Bengaluru drug cartel, has found that Anoop Mohammed, a drug peddler arrested by the agency on October 17, was a ‘benamidar’ of CPM Kerala state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan’s son Bineesh Kodiyeri. Bineesh had regularly credited huge amounts of unaccounted funds in Anoop’s account. These were preceded by large cash deposits in Kerala into the accounts of Bineesh Kodiyeri, the agency said in a press release issued in Bengaluru.

The ED had arrested Bineesh Kodiyeri after grilling him for three-and-a-half hours at its Bengaluru office. He was charged under Section 19 (1) of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. He was produced before the Bengaluru City Civil Court which sent him to ED custody for four days. The ED had initiated a probe against Anoop Mohammed based on the FIR registered by the Narcotics Control Bureau in Bengaluru on August 22. He was charged under sections 22, 27A, 28, and 29 of the NDPS Act. Anoop Mohammed had admitted during interrogation that he was indulging in the sale and purchase of narcotic drugs and was closely associated with Bineesh Kodiyeri. He held various accounts and transferred the huge proceeds of the crime into them. An investigation into the fund trail established that huge amounts of unaccounted funds were being regularly credited into his accounts by Bineesh Kodiyeri, the ED said. Meanwhile, Kerala witnessed massive protests on Friday as the Congress and BJP launched agitations demanding the resignation of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in the backdrop of the arrests of former principal secretary to the Chief Minister M Sivasankar and Bineesh Kodiyeri.