ED an ‘extended dept.’ of BJP, says Baby

Allegations of political bias and targeting by ED against CPI(M) leaders, claims M.A. Baby at reception.

The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) has now become an “extended department” of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] general secretary M.A. Baby has alleged.

He was addressing a reception accorded to him by the CPI(M) Kozhikode district committee here on Tuesday. Mr. Baby’s comments come against the backdrop of the Central agency arraigning the CPI(M), and party leaders K. Radhakrishnan, MP, A.C. Moideen, and M.M. Varghese, among others, as the accused in the Karuvannur Service Cooperative Bank loan scam.

Mr. Baby claimed that the agency was being used by the Union government and the BJP to threaten and antagonise political parties, leaders, and governments that refuse to toe the line of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah. “Those who don’t fall in line are heinously suppressed and portrayed as culprits. Fabricated allegations are being levelled against them,” he said.

Mr. Baby pointed out that the ED’s case filed against the CPI(M) and its leaders was politically motivated and was an attempt to target the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government in the State. “Just because the bank is located in Thrissur district and these leaders are from there, they are being implicated. They are not at all responsible or linked with the scam in the bank,” he claimed. Mr. Baby said that the various agencies of the State government had already been investigating the case. Steps were also being taken to return money to the investors, he said.

The CPI(M) leader also criticised a section of the media for publishing factually incorrect news reports against the party. He said that a prominent Malayalam newspaper had given a report saying that a private construction company involved in the construction of national highways in the State had donated electoral bonds to the CPI(M) even though the party was among those who filed pleas against such financial transactions in the Supreme Court.

Mr. Baby pointed out that the effort was to target the CPI(M) and the LDF government for the recent caving in and developing of cracks on some parts of the national highway. Minister for Public Works P.A. Mohamed Riyas, Kozhikode Mayor Beena Philip, and CPI(M) Kozhikode district secretary M. Mehboob, among others, were present.