Former Kerala minister gets ED summons

Thiruvananthapuram, July 18: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has served notice to senior CPI(M) leader Thomas Isaac seeking his appearance before it in connection with its probe into alleged violations in the financial dealings of KIIFB when he was the Kerala Finance Minister in the previous LDF government, official sources said on Sunday.

Sources said Mr Isaac has been directed to appear before the probe team on Tuesday.
Isaac said he has not received any such notices from the ED.

"Even if I get something like it, I am not going to appear because I have more important things to do. They (ED) will have to arrest me", he told PTI.

During the campaign for the state assembly elections last year, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had criticised the functioning of the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB), alleging that the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has criticised its financial dealings.

She had also termed as "questionable" the operation of KIIFB.

Ms Sitharaman had also questioned the role of the KIIFB in the making of the Kerala budget.

"I don't know what budget making is this when all the money is given to one KIIFB. What is this organisation? We also make a budget in the Union government. We don't give all money to one particular agency and say, 'We'll see'," she had said during her party's public meeting in Kochi last year.