Drug-money laundering case: Bineesh Kodiyeri's plea rejected

Bineesh Kodiyeri.

Bineesh Kodiyeri's plea for deletion of his name from the accused list in a drug-money laundering case was dismissed by a court on Friday.

Bineesh, who is the son of late CPM stalwart Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, had filed a petition before the Bengaluru City Sessions Court.

The Enforcement Directorate had named him the fourth accused in the case, for which he served a year at the Parappana Agrahara Central Prison in Bengaluru.

Bineesh had been arrested on October 29, 2020, for allegedly transferring Rs 50 lakh to the operator of an alleged drug racket. He was granted bail in October 2021.

The series of events that led to Bineesh's imprisonment started with the Narcotics Control Bureau arresting Kannada actor D Anikha and two Malayalis -- Anoop Muhammad and Rijesh Raveendran -- in August 2020 from Kochi.

Bineesh's alleged involvement came to light after the ED questioned Anoop. Even though Bineesh claimed that he had only loaned the amount to Anoop for starting a hotel in Bengaluru, the ED took him into custody based on his bank dealings.

Anoop's debit card was seized from Bineesh's house in Thiruvananthapuram. The investigators claimed that Bineesh's signature was on the card.

The ED argued that Anoop was Bineesh's benami and that the firms, B Capital Financial Services and B Capital Forex Trading Pvt Ltd, which he purportedly owned, were shell companies.

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