NEW DELHI: Enforcement Directorate teams on Wednesday conducted raids at former Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s house as part of an ongoing money laundering investigation linked to alleged financial transactions between Cochin Minerals & Rutile Ltd (CMRL) and Exalogic Solutions, a company owned by his daughter T Veena, as reported by news agency PTI.The raids came a day after the Kerala high court dismissed a petition filed by CMRL challenging the ED probe.Justice T R Ravi held that the challenge was premature as the agency had only issued summons under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), observing that such proceedings do not require registration of an FIR at that stage.The HC ruling effectively cleared the way for ED to continue its probe into payments amounting to Rs 1.72 crore allegedly made by CMRL to Exalogic Solutions between 2017-18 and 2019-20. The transactions had earlier come under scrutiny after findings by the Interim Board for Settlement of the Income Tax Department questioned their legitimacy as business expenditure.Following those findings, the ministry of corporate affairs had ordered a Serious Fraud Investigation Office probe in Jan 2024. ED later issued summons to CMRL officials in April 2024, prompting the company to move court against the agency’s action. The agency had argued before HC that proceedings under PMLA can continue even without a prior FIR and pointed out that the SFIO had already filed a complaint in April 2025.
