Kerala: ED attaches ₹30 crore assets in Karuvannur Service Cooperative bank fraud case

The central agency said he illegally sanctioned and disbursed loan to the tune of ₹26.60 crore in cash without any collateral due to the systematic conspiracy hatched and perpetuated by the secretary and committee members of the bank since 2010.

“The ED initiated a money laundering investigation on the basis of the FIRs registered by the Kerala police under section 420 of the IPC.

Kerala police (Crime Branch) has registered more than 16 FIRs in Thrissur District regarding fraud in Karuvannur Service Cooperative Bank Ltd,” ED said in a release.

The agency said the money laundering investigation carried out so far has revealed that multiple bogus loans were sanctioned by the bank on the same property without the knowledge of members of Society.

Press Release by ED.

It said the loan amounts were disbursed in cash and also huge cash deposits were found in the books of accounts of the bank.

The Karuvannur Service Cooperative Bank was also under the scrutiny of the Registrar of Cooperative Societies in Thiruvananthapuram.

Fraud of over ₹100 crore

After an FIR was registered in July 2021, the Registrar in their audit found a diversion of more than ₹100 crore, the ED said.

Earlier, on 10 August, ED conducted searches at six locations including a branch of the cooperative bank at Irinjalakuda in Thrissur. Another raid was conducted on 25 August.

The agitated depositors are on a warpath against the management of the ruling CPI(M)-controlled Karuvannur Cooperative Bank, located at Irinjalakuda, demanding their invested money back.

After a brief interval, the bank again triggered a controversy in July over the death of a woman depositor, whose family had alleged that she was denied money for advanced treatment by the management despite having lakhs of rupees as a deposit in the scam-hit bank.

Also read: Scamsters cause irreparable damage to cooperative legacy of Kerala

They also staged a protest sit-in in front of the bank with the woman’s corpse, which triggered a political row in the southern State as opposition parties came out against the ruling CPI(M) which controls the bank.

The loan scam was reported in the bank, located in Thrissur district, in July 2021, following which a case was registered against six bank officials and an inquiry was launched.

After several people including local customers raised apprehensions about the bank’s functioning, an audit was conducted there recently, in which the charges were reportedly found to be true.

Following the charges, the 13-member committee of the Marxist party-ruled bank was disbanded.

(Disclaimer: Only the headline, subheads, and intro of this report along with the photos may have been reworked by South First. The rest of the content is from a syndicated feed.)