Bengaluru: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has produced an ATM card of drug racket case accused Anoop Mohammad in the court which bears the signatures of Bineesh Kodiyeri.
The ED informed the court that the card was recovered during the raids carried out in Bineesh Kodiyeri's house in Thiruvananthapuram. Admitting ED's plea for more time for questioning, the court extended Bineesh's custody till November 11. The court informed that the bail plea cannot be heard at this stage as questioning is continuing in the case.
The card produced by ED in the court is linked to the address of Anoop Mohammad's Hayat Restaurant in Kammanahalli, Bengaluru. While rejecting the ED’s charges, Bineesh's advocate argued that his client was made to sign on the card forcibly.
The investigating agency said it had inquired about the addresses of B-Capital Forex Trading (Bengaluru), B-Capital Financial Services, Torres Remedies of which Bineesh was director and found that these companies were fake. Whether these companies were being used as a cover for money laundering needs to be probed, the ED said.
The counter argument was that Bineesh had resigned from the post of director of these companies in 2015.
Bineesh's advocate accused ED of tampering with his client’s medical report to prevent him from getting admitted to hospital. He said Bineesh was being tortured mentally and physically.
Meanwhile the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) withdrew its plea for Bineesh's custody in the wake of court extending his remand period with the ED.
The Enforcement Directorate has intensified its probe to find out Bineesh Kodiyeri's financial deals and benami deals since 2006. Of the team officials who came from Bengaluru to carry out the raids here recently, eight have stayed back in Thiruvananthapuram. They will be conducting further probe with the cooperation of Kerala unit of ED.
More raids and search operations will be carried out in some parts of the state in the coming days. The ED is gearing up for raids in some places associated with Bineesh in Varkala and certain establishments in Thiruvananthapuram.
Bineesh Kodiyeri's business links in Goa and Bengaluru and benami links of companies that had supplied drugs to the health department since 2006 are also under the scanner.
The ED is probing all transactions that took place using the debit card which the agency claimed to have recovered from Bineesh's house during the raid. The agency has received information that the card was used in Thiruvananthapruam while Anoop was in Bengaluru.
