Thrissur: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has unearthed phone call records that revealed a conspiracy between the main accused, Satheesh Kumar, and a CPM leader against a key witness in the money laundering case related to the multi-crore Karuvannur Cooperative Bank scam.
In one of the recordings, the two can be heard talking about Jijor, a key witness in the case. "What will we do if Jijor acts against us? Will his statements be out? Will we need to eliminate Jijor?" goes the conversations.
After they unearthed the voice clip, ED officials asked Jijor to be on a vigil, as the witness statements and the information given by him are crucial in the case.
The call recordings of the accused conspiring against the key witness were unearthed after the ED examined the details of phone calls made by Satheesh Kumar in the past six months.
Jijor was the middleman in the financial dealings of Satheesh Kumar following the Centre's decision to demonetise currencies. It is suspected that the accused laundered huge amounts through the Karuvannur Co-operative Bank.
Satheesh and his gang have been acting cautiously for the past few months, ever since they realised that they were on the radar of the economic intelligence agency. They were concerned that Jijor would potentially testify against them regarding Satheesh's finances. They could be heard sharing this concern many times in the phone call recordings unearthed by the ED, sources said.