The Enforcement Directorate on Monday informed the Kerala High Court here that state agencies and such banks are not cooperating about the loan scam case of Karuvannur Service Cooperative Bank. The ED made this statement while seeking custody of two accused PR Aravindakshan and Gils, a former employee at the Karuvannur bank, for further interrogation.
The ED said the Crime Branch police which was probing the scam and the Karuvannur bank are not cooperating with them and not giving the information and clarifications that they have been asking. The court, after hearing the ED's demand, granted the custody of the two accused for two days. The two have been in jail, along with two others who were also arrested last month soon after the ED began their probe.
The CPI-M has come under huge duress after top CPI(M) leaders like senior CPI-M legislator and former State Minister AC Moideen came under the ED radar. His house was also raided, and he failed to turn up for a second day of questioning at the Kochi office of the ED. Another top leader, a former CPI-M legislator MK Kannan was also questioned on two occasions and on the second occasion he was let off quickly after he said his health was worsening.
But what has hurt the CPI-M badly was while Vijayan and state party secretary MV Govindan slammed the ED, top party leaders including ruling Left Democratic Front convenor EP Jayarajan, former State Ministers G Sudhakaran and Thomas Isaac have taken a different position. Both the Congress and the BJP have charged the CPI(M) and its leadership with being the kingpins in the scam.
Incidentally, the arrested have now been identified by the ED to have close links with Moideen and that’s the reason why both Vijayan and Govindan have turned jittery and have been attacking the ED. It has also come to light that many 'benami loans' were disbursed on the instructions of Moideen.
(With IANS inputs)
