Karuvannur bank scam: CPM local committees come under ED scanner

Thrissur: The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) has tightened its noose on CPM in the alleged Rs 100-crore scam in Thrissur-based Karuvannur Co-operative Bank. In a major move, the central anti-money laundering agency extended its probe to local committees of the party after finding that more local and branch committees of the party in Karuvannur region have received a share of the money swindled from the bank. 

As part of this, ED has asked the party district secretary MM Varghese to produce the documents related to the party's assets in the district while appearing for an interrogation on April 22. In the initial phase of the probe centred on the CPM area committees, ED had found that the party operated 25 secret accounts in various banks.

On Thursday, ED interrogated CPM district secretary M M Varghese and former MP P K Biju who is a member of CPM state secretariat as part of the investigation into the money laundering case.

The ED has said its probe found that "on the instructions of certain persons, who were district-level leaders and committee members of certain political party and governed the bank, loans were disbursed by the bank manager through the agent in cash to non-member benamis by mortgaging properties of poor members without their knowledge and laundered to the benefit of the accused."

Bogus loans were sanctioned by the bank on the same property multiple times without the knowledge of the society members.

Investigation has also revealed that benami loans were sanctioned to non-members against inflated property valuations in the names of other members and such funds were siphoned off and laundered by the accused beneficiaries, the agency had said in a statement earlier.

(with PTI inputs)