Keralam Chief Minister V.D. Satheesan
| Photo Credit: ANI
The State government has no role in the Enforcement Directorate (ED) raids on the house of Leader of the Opposition and CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Pinarayi Vijayan, Chief Minister V.D. Satheesan said. Addressing a press conference here on Friday, he said that the allegations raised by CPI(M) leaders regarding his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi are ridiculous.“The ED is a Central agency. Some of the respondents in the case had gone to the High Court to prevent the investigation. The HC rejected the petition and allowed the ED to continue the investigation. What is the role of the State government in this? How can you tell them that they cannot investigate? We are not the competent authority to say that. If the CPI(M) thinks it is a political case, they can approach the court,” he said.‘A serious crime’He said that the agency had not informed the State government prior to the raids or after its completion. The Home Minister had foreseen the possibilities of a law and order situation and deployed a police force, whose tactical intervention prevented the situation from getting out of hand. “The attack on the officers who came here for the investigation is a serious crime. The government will take stringent action so that such tendencies are not repeated,” he said.Mr. Satheesan said that the meeting with Mr. Modi was a courtesy call and attempts to connect it to the ED raids are laughable. Just like Chief Ministers before me, I met the PM after assuming charge as the CM. This was my first personal meeting with him. If CPI(M) leaders are to be believed, when I met him, I asked him to conduct a raid on the Leader of the Opposition, which was done the very next day. My advice to the CPI(M) leaders is not to underestimate the common sense of Malayalis. The Leader of the Opposition came out after the raids and pointed fingers at Rahul Gandhi, but never uttered a word against the PM or the BJP,” he said.Mr.Satheean sought to differentiate the allegations against Mr.Vijayan’s daughter T.Veena and those against other political leaders including from the Congress for accepting funds from the CMRL. “All the political parties have accepted funds from businesses like the CMRL. But in this case, the CMRL had transacted huge amounts with Exalogic which had not provided any client services, which points to money laundering,” he said. He rejected allegations that he was running away from answering questions from the media regarding the ED raid over the past three days. “Some news channels have been claiming that I did not answer questions even though they asked me 12 times. Just like you have the right to ask questions, I also should have the right to give the answer at a time of my choosing, after studying all the issues,” he said. Published - May 29, 2026 05:55 pm IST
