CPM, senior leaders of CPM in ED chargesheet for cooperative bank scam

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday presented the second chargesheet in the Karuvannur service Cooperative Bank fraud case, accusing the CPI-M and a few of its senior leaders, among them K Radhakrishnan MP and former minister AC Moideen.

Investigation officer Nirmal Kumar Mosha filed the chargesheet before the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) Court in Kochi, with 28 individuals as newly accused. They include former CPI-M Thrissur district secretaries AC Moideen, MM Varghese and K Radhakrishnan.MP. The case now has a total of 83 accused.

"The party has also committed offenses like interfering with the operations of the Karuvannur Bank, helping the accused to fraudulently obtain loans and thus cheat the bank, knowingly distributing the money gained through fraud, having that money in their custody with an intention to use it in the future by falsely portraying it as unsoiled, and spending that money in acquiring assets," the charge sheet states.

With respect to K Radhakrishnan MP's involvement in the case, the ED alleges that while he was CPI-M Thrissur District Secretary between 2016 and 2018, his District Committee at that time knowingly assisted the accused in receiving the proceeds of crime. Part of these proceeds were purportedly spent by the party in raising funds and buying real estate for a party office.

The chargesheet has also brought to focus the contribution of former minister A C Moideen while he was serving as District Secretary between 2011 and 2016. The charge sheet points out that he too knowingly helped the accused obtain fraudulent loans from the bank.

Some of the CPI-M leaders whose names surfaced during the ED probe but were not referred to in the charge sheet are Industries Minister P Rajeev, Kerala Bank vice-president MK Kannan, former minister Paloli Mohammed Kutty and former MP PK Biju.

The case is that the Karuvannur service cooperative bank, which is under the control of the CPI-M. It had disbursed loans by fraudulent means and hence incurred massive financial loss to itself as well as the depositors. It was also accused of issuing loans in contravention of the rules and regulation and without sufficient collateral security. This is a scam of illegal handling and abuse of over Rs 300 crore. The funds were withdrawn from the account of the customers by submitting forged documents and benami loans.