<p>Thiruvananthapuram: The action against an Enforcement Directorate (ED) official by the Kerala Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) has come as a shot in the arm for the ruling CPM in Kerala as well as the Congress which has been questioning the credibility of the central agencies.</p><p>The VACB's move has also come at a time when the ED was also looking into the findings of the Income Tax interim settlement board and Serious Fraud Investigation Office against Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's IT entrepreneur daughter's suspicious financial dealings with a controversial mining firm.</p>.Huge percentage of ED officials are corrupt: Kerala LoP Satheesan.<p>Congress leadership in Kerala maintained that a large chunk of ED officials were corrupt. Opposition leader V D Satheesan said that even as the ED was supposed to probe cases under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, the agency was being politically used by the BJP government at the centre for initiating fake cases against political opponents.</p><p>Satheesan however added that in Kerala ED cases against the CPM leaders were being sabotaged owing to CPM-BJP nexus. The cooperative bank scam cases and probe into gold and dollar smuggling involving the Chief Minister's office were scuttled and in return the Kodakara black money case against BJP leaders were sabotaged by the police.</p><p>Meanwhile, the ED was also learnt to have launched an internal inquiry into the bribery allegation against the agency officials. An assistant director of ED Kochi unit was booked by the VACB on Saturday on the basis of a businessman's allegation that the official demanded a bribe of Rs 2 crore through agents for not implicating him in a black money case.</p>
<p>Thiruvananthapuram: The action against an Enforcement Directorate (ED) official by the Kerala Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) has come as a shot in the arm for the ruling CPM in Kerala as well as the Congress which has been questioning the credibility of the central agencies.</p><p>The VACB's move has also come at a time when the ED was also looking into the findings of the Income Tax interim settlement board and Serious Fraud Investigation Office against Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's IT entrepreneur daughter's suspicious financial dealings with a controversial mining firm.</p>.Huge percentage of ED officials are corrupt: Kerala LoP Satheesan.<p>Congress leadership in Kerala maintained that a large chunk of ED officials were corrupt. Opposition leader V D Satheesan said that even as the ED was supposed to probe cases under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, the agency was being politically used by the BJP government at the centre for initiating fake cases against political opponents.</p><p>Satheesan however added that in Kerala ED cases against the CPM leaders were being sabotaged owing to CPM-BJP nexus. The cooperative bank scam cases and probe into gold and dollar smuggling involving the Chief Minister's office were scuttled and in return the Kodakara black money case against BJP leaders were sabotaged by the police.</p><p>Meanwhile, the ED was also learnt to have launched an internal inquiry into the bribery allegation against the agency officials. An assistant director of ED Kochi unit was booked by the VACB on Saturday on the basis of a businessman's allegation that the official demanded a bribe of Rs 2 crore through agents for not implicating him in a black money case.</p>