Chennai: After a brief break, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has again stepped up its probe in the Karuvannur Service Co-operative Bank money-laundering case, questioning CPM’s Kerala state secretariat member P.K. Biju in connection with its probe Thursday.
Biju, a former Alathur MP, was questioned by a team of the ED in Kochi.
The agency has also summoned Thrissur Corporation councillor P.K. Shajan to appear before it Friday. Before Biju, senior CPM leaders A.C. Moideen and M.K. Kannan were questioned in the alleged loan scam in the Thrissur-based bank that is controlled by the communist party.
While Shajan and Biju were members of the CPM-appointed committee that probed the alleged irregularities in the bank, the ED says the scam took place on the instruction of Moideen, who was the minister for local self-government between 2016 and 2021 in the previous Left Democratic Front (LDF) rule Kerala.
According to the ED, its probe revealed that, on the instructions of certain persons, loans were disbursed by the bank manager in cash to non-member ‘benamis’ by mortgaging properties of poor customers without their knowledge. The money was allegedly laundered to benefit the accused. In 2021, a Kerala Police probe had found that Rs 150 crore was allegedly siphoned off by the bank staff.
This year, the ED reportedly revealed to the Election Commission, the Reserve Bank of India and Union finance ministry, in a letter dated 16 January, that the “CPM had five undisclosed accounts in the bank”.
The ED’s fresh summons to CPM leaders ahead of the Lok Sabha polls have created ripples in the state.
Challenging the agency to find the alleged “secret accounts”, CPM senior leader M.V. Govindan said the party was “not scared” of the ED. “The ED and central government who have arrested leaders like (Delhi chief minister) Arvind Kejriwal in false cases, can arrest anyone, but the party won’t be scared,” he told the media Monday, asserting that the CPM didn’t have accounts that hadn’t been revealed to the Election Commission.
On 30 March, PM Narendra Modi in a phone call to BJP workers in Kerala had said he would “ensure that criminals involved in the Karuvannur bank scam were punished” and justice was served to those who had lost their money.
“The INDIA bloc has been formed to conceal each other’s corrupt activities. The entire country is aware that the links of gold smuggling are connected to a specific office. Similarly, the Karuvannur Service Cooperative Bank scam involves the communists who have been implicated. This scam has resulted in the loot of money belonging to the poor,” he said.
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Alleged scam & its poll impact
Located nearly 20 km away from Thrissur, Karuvannur Service Co-operative Bank is an agricultural society in Moorkanad.
Details about the alleged scam involving the bank came to light in 2021, when the secretary in charge of the bank, Sreekala E.S., approached the police accusing several employees of misappropriation of funds.
The ED began probing the case in August of the same year. It was found that the title deeds of many borrowers were used to sanction loans to third-parties from 2011 to 2021.
The Kerala High Court this January slammed the ED for delay in probe. Hearing a petition by one of the accused against the confiscation of his property, Justice Devan Ramachandran asked what the agency had been doing for the last three years and observed that the investigation couldn’t go on indefinitely.
While the issue has cast a shadow over Kerala’s CPM leadership, it has become a poll plank in Thrissur, one of the high-profile constituencies that is witnessing a triangular contest.
Reacting to the recent developments, BJP candidate Suresh Gopi said the ED would finish its probe on time and the culprits would be punished. At a campaign event in Thrissur district, the actor-turned-politician said the people who were criticising the BJP had a “hidden understanding”, apparently referring to the CPM and the Congress.
The former Rajya Sabha MP had undertaken an 18-km foot march in the district in October 2023 protesting against the alleged money laundering at the bank. He also paid tribute to five victims of the alleged scam, who died by suicide after losing money.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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