On Thursday, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) ended the 26 hour-raid at the residence of actor Bineesh Kodiyeri, son of the CPI (M) state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, in Thiruvananthapuram. The raid was conducted in connection with the drugs-related money laundering case.
After the raid ended, Bineesh's wife, Renitta, came out of the house along with her mother and three-year-old daughter. While addressing the media gathered outside the house, Renitta alleged that the Enforcement Directorate had mentally harassed her and her daughter. "They first took away my mother's phone. Then, ED officials attempted to intimidate me into signing a witness form and seizure report. The seizure report states that the ED officers had seized a credit card in the name of Muhammad Anoop from our house," she told reporters. Renitta has accused the ED of planting the evidence.
Meanwhile, the Kerala Child Rights Commission (KCRC) has served a legal notice to the directorate during their prolonged search of Bineesh's home
KCRC chairman K V Manoj Kumar had demanded that he and other officers be allowed inside. He claimed the KCRC was a judicial body and that the ED could not deny them entry.
Earlier, Bineesh's relatives protested outside his house demanding permission to meet his family. Bineesh's wife, mother-in-law and daughter were present in the house during the raid.
Since the raid began, Bineesh's family has not left the house and a group of relatives wanted to be allowed in the house and meet the family. The raid had begun on Wednesday. One of the two women present with other relatives, claiming to be the sister of Balakrishnan's wife, told reporters that their only request was that one of them should be allowed to meet the family.
"We are sending them food and now it has been more than 24 hours since the raid had begun. We want to know if our relatives are consuming the food or not. We will not leave until our request is met," said the sister of Balakrishnan's wife.
Following this commotion, top state police officials had arrived at the premises and after talking with the ED officials, the police told the relatives that the family has conveyed that they do not wish to see anyone. However, the protesting relative refused to believe what the state police had said. "We do not believe what the police just conveyed. This is a cooked up story. We know she (Bineesh's wife) will never say that. We want one of us to be sent inside the house to check on the family,” one of the relatives told reporters.
ED officials continued the raid through the night and the house is being manned by the CRPF and a few Karnataka police officers. While the ED ended its raids at five other places connected with Bineesh's business interests on Wednesday night, it continued the raid inside the house and after 26 hours, the raid ended.
Bineesh has been in their custody since October 29 and officials said that the raid were followed up on the information they received from him. He was arrested under the charges of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. Bineesh is currently in custody till Saturday and will be produced before a court in Bengaluru.
