The ED has ordered CMRL management to hand over financial transactional data spanning the past 15 years.
File Photo: IANS
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has intensified its money-laundering probe into the financial transactions between Cochin Minerals and Rutile Ltd. (CMRL) and Exalogic Solutions, broadening its scope to scrutinise several entities associated with businessman Sasidharan Kartha and his family.
As part of the ongoing probe, CMRL Managing Director Saran S. Kartha(son of Sasidharan Kartha) and Empower India Capital Investments Director Jaya S. Kartha, wife of Sasidharan Kartha, appeared before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) office in Kochi on Tuesday for questioning. Sources noted that both individuals arrived at the office carrying trolley bags. The agency questioned Sasidharan Kartha’s daughter, Shibi S. Kartha, for several hours on Monday.
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The ED has ordered CMRL management to hand over financial transactional data spanning the past 15 years.
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The probe focuses on an alleged illegal payoff in which CMRL paid Rs 2.78 crore to Exalogic Solutions, an IT firm owned by Veena T. (Veena Vijayan), daughter of former chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, without receiving any actual services in return.
According to sources, the agency is now widening its probe from CMRL and Exalogic to examine related entities, specifically Kartha family-linked firms Nipuna International Pvt Ltd and Empower India Capital Investments Pvt Ltd.
The agency is also probing loans worth Rs 50 lakh extended by Empower India Capital Investments Pvt Ltd to Exalogic in two instalments, including why a second loan was sanctioned despite an alleged default in repayment of the first.
The involvement of CMRL-linked Nipuna International Pvt Ltd, which is named in the case records, is also being probed by the ED.
Investigators are currently tracing financial transactions between CMRL, Exalogic, and related entities to determine whether they were used as channels for moving illicit funds.
Concurrently, the ED has summoned Exalogic owner Veena Vijayan to appear in Kochi on Wednesday. The scheduled interrogation will centre on the financial interactions between Exalogic and entities associated with the Kartha family.
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