Ex-Kerala CM Pinarayi’s daughter T. Veena seeks postponement of ED questioning in CMRL pay-off case

T. Veena, daughter of former Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, is unlikely to appear before the Kochi zonal office of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for questioning on Friday (June 12, 2026) in connection with the alleged money-laundering case linked to the Cochin Minerals and Rutile Limited (CMRL) pay-off. She has sought postponement of appearance citing health grounds.

The ED may issue a fresh summons for another date. Ms. Veena has reportedly mailed the agency, expressing her willingness to appear later and cooperate with the investigation by submitting relevant documents through her lawyer.

This was the first summons issued to her by the ED, which is learnt to have prepared a detailed questionnaire.

The central agency had summoned Ms. Veena along with Sasidharan Kartha, chairman and managing director of CMRL, and senior company officials on June 9, 2026 as part of the probe.

The ED had on May 27, 2026 raided the residences of Mr. Vijayan in Kannur and Thiruvananthapuram as part of the probe into whether his daughter and former IT consultant Ms. Veena’s now-defunct firm Exalogic had received sizeable monthly retainers from CMRL, a private mining company, during the 2017-2021 period allegedly without rendering any tangible service.

The ED had earlier frozen ₹18.36 crore in 242 accounts identified during the search operations held in the pay-off case. It had claimed that the searches held as part of the probe yielded several incriminating records, accounts, digital evidences, investments and fixed deposits in banks. Besides Mr. Vijayan’s residences at Kannur and Thiruvananthapuram, the ED had held searches in the residence of former Minister and Ms. Veena’s husband P.A. Mohamed Riyas.

A special court for the trial of Companies Act offences in Kochi on June 8 allowed the ED to obtain copies of documents collected by the SFIO in connection with the money-laundering case linked to the CMRL pay-off case.

Ernakulam Additional District and Sessions Judge Suresh Babu V.P.M. allowed a petition filed by the ED seeking copies of documents gathered by the SFIO, which had investigated the alleged fictitious expenses submitted by the CMRL before the Income Tax Settlement Commission. The agency had reportedly sought 134 documents collected by the SFIO during its probe into the links between the CMRL and Ms. Veena’s now-defunct firm.