Bengaluru drug case: Bineesh Kodiyeri in NCB custody till November 20

BENGALURU: Sleuths of Narcotics Control Bureau’s Bengaluru zonal unit on Tuesday took Bineesh Kodiyeri, son of former Kerala CPM secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, into custody for questioning in a drug-peddling case in which two of his aides were arrested in August.
The 37-year-old, who is yet to be formally arrested and booked under the NDPS Act, will be grilled till Friday to ascertain if he had financed his aides’ drug trade in Bengaluru.
On Tuesday, the NCB team reached the Central Prison complex in Parappana Agrahara where Bineesh was lodged after being remanded in judicial custody last week in a money-laundering case booked by the Enforcement Directorate.
After obtaining a body warrant from a city court, NCB took Bineesh to an undisclosed location, even as a huge media contingent waited at NCB’s Yelahanka office.
Sources said Bineesh was granted custodial interrogation till Friday, and will be grilled on his alleged money and drug links with Mohammed Anoop, 38, a prime suspect and his long-time aide, who was arrested for drug dealing from his service apartment in Kalyan Nagar on August 24. Bineesh’s another associate Rijesh Ravindran, 37, was also nabbed by NCB in the case.
Sources said Anoop has told NCB that Bineesh had sent him Rs 50 lakh for developing his restaurant business, not for drug dealings.