Thrissur: The enforcement directorate has provisionally attached assets worth Rs 23 crore of the controversial businessman V. M. Radhakrishnan (Chakku Radhakrishnan) in connection with the Malabar Cements corruption case. ED officials in Kochi and Kozhikode served notices on 11 properties that include mainly hotels in Thiruvananthapuram, Palakkad and Kozhikode, invoking Prevention of Money Laundering (PML) Act, 2002, for attaching them.
He brought all of them during 2004-2008 when there was rampant corruption in Malabar Cements including that of supply of fly ash by his firm. During the V. S. Achuthanandan government, vigilance enquiry had found irregularities of Rs 23 crore in five different cases on which they had filed chargesheets. The attachment is provisional, and he can appeal the adjudication authority in Delhi. Mr Radhakrishnan said he would challenge the move in the court. However, ED sources said in most of the cases, the adjudication authority had been endorsing the attachments under the PML Act.
