Enforcement Directorate officials who raided the house of former Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday were attacked and their vehicles vandalised allegedly by Communist Party of India (Marxist) workers, The Indian Express reported.

The officials were attacked while leaving Vijayan’s house after completing the seven-hour-long raid.

The central agency had carried out searches at the Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader’s residences in Kannur and Thiruvananthapuram as part of a money-laundering investigation.

It is investigating whether Cochin Minerals and Rutile Limited, a private company, paid around Rs 1.7 crore to a now-defunct information technology firm run by Vijayan’s daughter, T Veena, between 2017 and 2021.

The mining company, in which the Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation has 13.4% stake, had allegedly made the payments to Veena’s Exalogic Solutions with no evidence of any services rendered in return.

On Wednesday, the ED carried out searches at 12 locations in the state, including the homes of his daughter and son-in-law, former minister PA Muhammad Riyas, in Kozhikode. Offices linked to Cochin Minerals and Rutile Limited were also raided.

Exalogic Solutions had entered into a contract with the CMRL in 2017 for providing software and marketing services, The Wire reported.

The case came to light after the income tax department carried out searches on the premises of the Cochin Minerals and Rutile Limited in 2023, when Vijayan was the chief minister of Kerala.

The raids came a day after the Kerala High Court dismissed a petition by CMRL seeking to quash the ED proceedings.

Following the raids on Wednesday, Communist Party of India (Marxist) workers led by party state secretary MV Govindan had conducted a march and staged a sit-in in front of Vijayan’s house in Thiruvananthapuram, The Indian Express reported.

Party workers allegedly threw eggs and bricks at the vehicles used by the ED officials. Protesters also reportedly smashed the windshields of the cars with sticks.

Personnel from the Central Reserve Police Force and the Kerala Police struggled to control the crowd, PTI reported.

Additional Director General of Police H Venkatesh asserted that a team has been sent to arrest those accused of engaging in violence, but did not say how many persons had been taken into custody, ANI reported.

“The police are not backing away from here,” the official was quoted as saying by the news agency. “None of the accused will be let off. The police will act strictly according to the law.”

Vijayan reacts to raids

Speaking to reporters after the raids, Vijayan alleged that the ED searches were part of a “targeted crackdown” on Opposition leaders across the country, The New Indian Express reported.

The searches may provide “mental satisfaction” to leaders like the Congress’ Rahul Gandhi, the CPI(M) leader said. Vijayan alleged that Gandhi had repeatedly questioned why his home had not been searched and why he had not been arrested.

The former chief minister asserted that the action would not weaken him or the CPI(M).

“This is only a beginning,” the newspaper quoted him as saying. “Nobody should harbour the illusion that such actions can intimidate or weaken us.”

Vijayan further claimed that the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Union government had been using central agencies against Opposition leaders since it came to power, and claimed that the action against him was also part of that strategy.

Earlier in the day, Communist Party of India (Marxist) General Secretary A Baby condemned the searches, describing them as “a targeted attack on a top Opposition leader by the Bharatiya Janata Party government”.

“Such actions will not intimidate Pinarayi Vijayan or the CPI(M),” Baby added.

He also questioned whether the new Congress-led United Democratic Front government in Kerala was complicit in the action.

In the Assembly election results announced on May 4, the UDF won 102 seats in the 140-member Assembly, defeating the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front after a decade in Opposition.

Another protest in Delhi

In a statement, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) said that it had also organised a protest against the raids at the ED headquarters in New Delhi, adding that the demonstration was led by the party’s general secretary.

The Delhi Police detained more than one hundred demonstrators during the protest, the statement said. Those detained included party leaders Brinda Karat, Ashok Dhawale, Mariam Dhawale and Vijoo Krishnan, it added.

“Addressing the gathering, MA Baby strongly condemned the action carried out by the ED under the direction of the central government and stated that the raid on Pinarayi Vijayan’s residence was a politically motivated act of vendetta,” it said. “He pointed out that courts have repeatedly observed that Pinarayi Vijayan has absolutely no connection with the Exalogic case, yet the political witch-hunt against him continues unabated.”

Baby also said that such an action taking place after Chief Minister VD Satheesan’s recent meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi raised serious questions and appears to be a “politically orchestrated drama”.

Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.