New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday conducted searches at nearly 10 locations linked to Cochin Minerals and Rutile Limited (CMRL), its top executives, and Kerala former Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s daughter Veena Vijayan, following a recent Kerala High Court order upholding the agency’s money laundering investigation in the alleged corporate fraud case involving the company.
Officials said documents related to investments and bank fixed deposits were seized during the raids and are currently being scrutinised as part of the ongoing probe under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
CMRL is a publicly listed company in which 48.75 per cent shares are held by public investors, while 13.41 per cent stake is owned by the Kerala government-run Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation, as of March 31, 2023.
According to officials, the searches were carried out in Kannur, Ernakulam, Thiruvananthapuram and Bengaluru at premises linked to CMRL Managing Director S.N. Sasidharan Kartha, Joint Managing Director Saran S. Kartha, and Veena Vijayan, who runs Bengaluru-based IT firm Exalogic Solutions Private Limited.
Sources said intelligence inputs indicated that Veena Vijayan was present at a residence in Thiruvananthapuram along with her father, Pinarayi Vijayan, when the ED team arrived to conduct the searches.
The case stems from an Income Tax Department raid conducted at CMRL in January 2019, during which alleged fake expenditure entries worth nearly Rs 130 crore were detected. The company subsequently admitted to the irregularities before the Income Tax Settlement Commission.
Following this, the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) initiated a probe at the direction of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs.
On April 3, 2025, the SFIO filed a prosecution complaint before the Additional Sessions Court-VII in Ernakulam against Sasidharan Kartha and 12 others in connection with the alleged corporate fraud case.
Investigators alleged that fictitious cash expenses amounting to Rs 182 crore were shown over a span of 15 years and that CMRL paid nearly Rs 91 crore towards transport services to firms owned by the Kartha family.
The SFIO further alleged that Exalogic Solutions Private Limited, owned by Veena Vijayan, received Rs 2.78 crore from CMRL in the guise of IT consultancy services.
On May 26, 2026, the Kerala High Court dismissed CMRL’s plea challenging the ED investigation, observing that a predicate offence was not mandatory at the initial stage of a PMLA probe and noting that the SFIO complaint now constituted a scheduled offence under the Act.
(IANS)
