Bengaluru drugs case: Bineesh Kodiyeri appears before Enforcement Directorate officials
Kochi: Bineesh Kodiyeri, son of Kerala CPI-M secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, appeared before the Enforcement Directorate officials here on Wednesday after being summoned by the agency over allegations of his links with an accused in Bengaluru drug case, sources said here.
The Enforcement Directorate had issued a notice to Bineesh directing him to appear before it at 11 am on Wednesday.
The central agency's move came following charges of links between a key accused in the Kerala gold smuggling case and a prime accused in the Bengaluru drug seizure case.
Earlier, the youth wing of the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) had alleged that Bineesh Kodiyeri has close links with some members of a drug racket busted by the Narcotics Control Bureau in Bengaluru recently.
Youth League General Secretary P K Firos had alleged that Bineesh had invested money in a hotel business launched by the drug case accused Mohammed Anoop in Kammanahalli in 2015 and demanded a comprehensive investigation into it.
Bineesh has said he knew Anoop and his family and the latter had borrowed money from him and some others for starting the restaurant business in Bengaluru some years ago.
Bineesh had also said he was shocked after hearing the news about Anoop's alleged involvement in drug trafficking.
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Defamation case: Application filed in court for voice sample of Rahul Gandhi
Sultanpur (UP) (PTI): An application for obtaining a voice sample of Rahul Gandhi was filed in an MP-MLA court here on Saturday during a hearing in a defamation case against the Congress leader over his alleged objectionable remarks against then BJP president Amit Shah in 2018.
The plaintiff Vijay Mishra's advocate, Santosh Kumar Pandey, said he filed the application requesting that a voice sample of Gandhi be collected and sent to a forensic science laboratory for comparison with a CD that has already been submitted to the court.
Rahul Gandhi's lawyers registered their objections to this demand. The next hearing in the matter is fixed for April 6, Pandey said.
On February 20, Gandhi, the Lok Sabha MP from Raebareli, had appeared before the court and recorded his statement, claiming the case was filed against him due to political vendetta.
He had also told the court that the audio and video evidence submitted by the complainant was incorrect and said he would present his own evidence.
In December 2023, the court issued a warrant against Gandhi after he failed to appear before it. He later surrendered before the court in February 2024 and was granted bail on two surety bonds of Rs 25,000 each.
The hearing was deferred on Friday due to a holiday on Ram Navami.
Pandey said that during the previous hearing, the complainant's side had filed an application seeking verification of audio and video evidence of the alleged statements made by Gandhi by matching them with his original voice.
The case stems from Gandhi's alleged objectionable remarks against Shah during the 2018 Karnataka election campaign. Following the remarks, Vijay Mishra, a resident of Hanumanganj under Kotwali Dehat police station area in Sultanpur, filed the defamation complaint.
