Kochi: The BJP in Kerala on Friday alleged that massive corruption to the tune of Rs 5,000 crore has happened in cooperative banks across the state and the ruling CPM has been trying to cover it up.

BJP national executive council member P K Krishnadas said that the Karuvannur cooperative bank scam, which is being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), is only the tip of the iceberg. “Similar corruption has happened in around 100 cooperative banks in the state and most of them are ruled by the CPM,” the BJP leader said at a press meet in the party’s district office here.

Krishnadas said the CPM and the state government were trying to sabotage the ED probe into the Karuvannur scam using state police. He was referring to CPM leader and Vadakkanchery municipal councillor P R Aravindakshan’s complaint that he was assaulted by ED sleuths during interrogation in connection with the Karuvannur scam. 

“The CPM and the state government are trying not only to stop ED from investigating the Karuvannur scam but also to prevent the agency from reaching the doorsteps of other cooperative banks where similar fraud has taken place. CPM and the government want to restrict the probe to Karuvannur only. If the probe is extended to other districts, most of the CPM leaders will have to go to jail,” he said.

He said Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, also handling the home department, was misusing power to threaten the ED using police. “The CPM and the government are sending out a clear message that they are with the accused in the Karuvannur scam,” he said.

Krishnadas said his party has collected details of corruption in nearly 100 cooperative banks. He also read out the names of some of them. Asked how his party arrived at the conclusion that corruption to the tune of Rs 5,000 crore has taken place, he said the data was culled from government’s findings and using party’s internal machinery. He said the data will be handed over to the ED if the agency requires it.

Krishnadas said there was a pattern in the frauds taking place in cooperative banks across the state. “One of them is to issue loans based on forged property documents. In such cases naturally, there will be loan defaults. However, attachment of property will not be possible as the documents are forged. Another fraudulent operation is to take out the hard-earned money deposited by the poor people in cooperative banks and invest it in another institution for higher earnings. In some cases, the documents pledged in cooperative banks are pledged in other banks to avail loans,” he said. 

“Market price of properties is valued disproportionally in many cases to issue huge amounts as loans. In such incidents also banks incur losses even if the property is attached. There are also cases where banks issue more loans to those who have already defaulted on previous ones,” he added.

He said the CPM has been covering up many such cases paving way for more corruption. He said the Congress was also involved “in a few cases”. “The Congress will not fight the CPM as the two parties are part of the I.N.D.I.A coalition at the Centre,” he said.