ED asks Isaac to appear before it on Monday

CPI-M's Pathanamthitta Lok Sabha seat candidate and former Kerala Finance Minister Thomas Isaac was on Wednesday served the sixth notice by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), asking him to appear before them on Monday in connection with the masala bonds issue case, reports IANS as quoted by online news sites.

Isaac, who is busy with his campaign, accused the ED of "unleashing threats".

"The ED should not forget that this is Kerala and not north India. The ED is not going to cut my nose if I don’t appear. Anyway, I am approaching the Kerala High Court on Monday," he said.

However, despite his best efforts to get a stay, he is yet to get any relief from the Kerala High Court, which orally pointed out last month that "it’s only a summons".

A total of Rs 2,150 crore was raised through the masala bonds by the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB) in 2019 when Isaac was the Finance Minister in the first Pinarayi Vijayan government (2016-21).

A former professor of economics and a four-time legislator, Isaac did not figure in the CPI-M list for the 2021 Assembly elections. For nearly three years, he was more into academics than politics, before his name was cleared to contest the Pathanamthitta Lok Sabha seat, which, since its inception in 2009, has been held by the Congress' Anto Antony.

Isaac is pitted against Anto Antony and BJP's Anil Antony, son of veteran Congress leader and former Defence Minister and Kerala Chief Minister A.K. Antony.