KOCHI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday issued a notice to former minister and Congress leader V S Sivakumar, asking him to appear for interrogation in a case related to alleged money laundering as part of illegal amassment of wealth.
ED has also served a notice on Sivakumar’s friend and personal assistant (PA) Rajendran for questioning. Both have been asked to appear for the interrogation on April 20 at the ED office in Kochi.
Sivakumar, however, said there was nothing new in the ED notice. “It’s part of an ongoing investigation and not a new development,” he said. “It’s part of the investigation initiated by the vigilance in 2021. All documents related to the matter were submitted before the authorities at that time,” he said.
ED started a probe based on an FIR registered by Kerala’s Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau against Sivakumar for allegedly amassing wealth disproportionate to his known source of income, in February 2020. ED suspects that Sivakumar laundered money as part of illegal amassment of wealth. It was alleged that he invested money through his benamis in various firms in Kerala and other states.
The case in this regard was registered by ED in 2020, and raids were conducted at the residences of Sivakumar and the people associated with him. Sivakumar was the health minister in Oommen Chandy government.