Thiruvananthapuram : The state govt has decided to investigate the CMRL-Exalogic financial transactions based on information shared by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) with the state police chief, home minister Ramesh Chennithala said on Tuesday.
The apex court had held that information shared by the ED with the jurisdictional police under Section 66(2) of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) has to be acted upon in accordance with law.
Ramesh said the probe decision was taken in consultation with chief minister V D Satheesan after the govt received the advocate general’s legal opinion. The advocate general had advised that the report received by the police chief could not be ignored and specifically referred to the Supreme Court’s Vijay Madanlal Choudhary judgment, he said. The home department subsequently directed an inquiry into the information furnished by the ED, according to the minister. The advocate general also referred to the Supreme Court’s Lalita Kumari judgment, which laid down the procedure to follow before registering an FIR in certain categories of cases, including corruption cases, he said.
Earlier, the ED, which is investigating the CMRL bribe case, had written to state police chief Ravada A Chandrasekhar seeking registration of an FIR under the Prevention of Corruption Act against former chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan , his daughter Veena T and son-in-law and former minister Mohamed Riyas, based on “evidence” allegedly gathered during its probe. It is reliably learnt that the preliminary inquiry will be conducted by a special investigation team of the Crime Branch.