Kochi, Jan 31 (IANS): The Enforcement Directorate has confiscated assets worth Rs 2.5 million of former Congress minister and present legislator K. Babu.

Babu was the excise minister in the cabinet of Oommen Chandy ( 2011-16) and the ED probe pertained to the period from 2007 to 2017.

Babu was kept on tenterhooks after the state vigilance department registered a case when the Chandy government came under attack from the then CPI-M led Left opposition over the bar scam, but later vigilance gave him a clean chit.

The ED stepped into this case soon after the vigilance department had registered a case. It was on Wednesday that the ED after a probe found that Babu had acquired assets which were found to be disproportionate to his known sources of income.

Babu in 2016 lost the Tripunithura assembly constituency that he was representing since 1991 and this was largely due to the allegations that surfaced, but in 2021, he regained the seat.