CMRL pay-off case: Keralam CM signals that UDF to soon decide on ED demand to prosecute Pinarayi Vijayan

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V.D. Satheesan | Photo Credit: The Hindu

Keralam Chief Minister V.D. Satheesan on Wednesday signalled that the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) government was on the cusp of deciding whether to accede to the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) demand to indict former Chief Minister and current Opposition Leader Pinarayi Vijayan, his daughter T. Veena, and son-in-law and former Minister P. A. Mohamed Riyas on charges of corruption in the CMRL-Exalogic pay-off case. 

Speaking to reporters after chairing a Cabinet meeting, Mr Satheesan said the ED had raised apparently serious charges in its 25-page report to the State Police Chief, demanding that the law enforcement book the trio on the charge of accepting bribes from CMRL, a company in which the Keralam government has a minority stake, camouflaged as retainers to Ms Veena’s now-defunct software consultancy, Exalogic. 

The ED had also claimed in the report that it had confiscated a diary, noted as a ‘Red Book’, detailing the allegedly illicit financial transaction during a raid at Mr Vijayan’s house in Thiruvananthapuram in May 2026.

Mr Vijayan had disputed the existence of any incriminating entries in the diary. At the same time, Mr Riyas maintained that the personal journal contained “scribblings” about Ms Veena’s plans, which had yet to come to fruition. 

Mr Satheesan said there was “an apparent discrepancy” between (Mr Vijayan and Mr Riyas’s) statements concerning the so-called diary.

However, he stopped short of committing to whether the government would recommend prosecution. He said the government was examining in granular detail the legality of the ED’s case and the options before law enforcement. 

Meanwhile, Mr Riyas told reporters in Kozhikode that the UDF government was seeking to provide a political cover to the ED’s excesses against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Central government’s political rivals, chiefly CPI(M) leaders. “The UDF is seeing a discrepancy in the statement where none exists,” he said. 

On Tuesday, Mr Riyas had claimed that any move to prosecute people based on the questionable payoff entries in the so-called “sludge fund ledger” maintained by CMRL would have “double-edged” legal and political consequences for the UDF government. 

In what appeared to be an oblique reference to the controversy surrounding the alleged acceptance of “political funds” by UDF leaders from CMRL when in the Opposition, Mr Riyas had quipped: “When a yellowing leaf falls, green ones mock.”

Meanwhile, Supreme Court lawyer Kaleeswaram Raj told The Hindu that Section 66(2) of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) required the ED to share information on predicate offences with State law enforcement. However, Mr Raj said the rider was that the agency could not insist on the conduct of a prefactory inquiry or registration of a Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA) case.

“The law vests such authority solely with the State government and law enforcement,” he said.

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