The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) raid on the house of former Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan was carried out as per a decision of the Kerala High Court, and the allegation that the raid was politically motivated is ridiculous, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) senior leader V. Muraleedharan has said.

Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, Mr. Muraleedharan said, “The investigation is part of a legal procedure. I don’t understand why the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] is so agitated over the raid. They have not yet been able to explain the purpose of the payments made by the company under dispute to Mr. Vijayan’s daughter,” he said.

“If the CPI(M) has any legal counterarguments, they should have raised them before a court of law,” he said. Responding to the CPI(M)’s allegation that the raid was part of a deal between the ruling Congress and the BJP-led Centre, he said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has ‘better things to do’ than strike any deal with the Congress to target a party that is unlikely to return to power in Kerala,” he said.

He also questioned the Congress on its stand regarding the investigation. Mr. Muraleedharan said Congress leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, often term ED investigations as politically motivated and asked whether the Congress holds the same stance on the present ED investigation. He remarked that this was a case that had been going on for the past three to four years and did not arise when the United Democratic Front (UDF) government assumed office.