M.A. Baby hits out at ED, accuses it of acting as BJP’s ‘extended department’

Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] general secretary M. A. Baby on Thursday accused the Enforcement Directorate (ED) of functioning as an “extended department of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)” and said the agency would soon realise that CPI(M) leaders would not join the BJP out of fear of investigation.

He was responding to the ED’s latest move involving the CPI(M) leadership and said the agency had made a big mistake by targeting the party. He said the issue now being raised by the ED had already been taken up before the courts by a Congress legislator during the tenure of Pinarayi Vijayan as Chief Minister. The legislator had first approached the Vigilance Court seeking an investigation against Mr. Vijayan and others, but the court rejected the plea. The matter was subsequently taken to the High Court and later to the Supreme Court where the plea was rejected, he said.