Pinarayi Vijayan’s personal aide Raveendran escapes ED questioning again

The Enforcement Directorate has issued a fresh notice to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s Additional Private Secretary CM Raveendran. The notice asks him to appear at the agency’s Kochi office for questioning on Friday, November 27. However, Pinarayi’s aide is now hospitalised at the Thiruvananthapuram Medical College, citing post-Covid complications.

The ED had sent a notice to Raveendran, asking him to appear for questioning on November 5. However, the personal secretary had tested Covid positive and gone into quarantine. Moreover, the entire staff close to him had had to go into quarantine and the questioning was rescheduled. The ED had issued the previous notice claiming that M Sivasankar and Swapna Suresh had named Raveendran on multiple occasions.

Raveendran contacted the Enforcement Directorate officials soon after completing his quarantine and the ED issued this fresh notice following his recovery. Meanwhile, the Customs has also decided to question Raveendran following Swapna’s reported statement that she had contacted him several times over the phone. CM Raveendran is, reportedly, a very influential individual in the Chief Minister’s office.