Karuvannur bank fraud: ED names CPM accused in case, seizes party assets

Kochi: The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) on Friday named the CPM an accused in the Karuvannur Cooperative Bank money laundering case. A report submitted by the agency revealed that the party had received money that was laundered from the bank. ED also confiscated assets worth Rs 29 crore, including that of CPM and other individuals involved in the case, Manorama News reported.

The assets and accounts seized are in the name of CPM Thrissur district secretary M M Varghese. Eight accounts of several branches of the CPM were confiscated by the agency – two fixed deposit accounts of the Thrissur district committee, one of the party's Irinjalakkuda area committee and five bogus accounts.

Land worth Rs 10 lakh, which was purchased for the construction of a local committee office in Porathissery, was also seized. Assets worth Rs 73 lakh were confiscated from CPM alone. The properties of nine individuals who obtained loans illegally from Karuvannur bank were also seized. CPM leaders are yet to respond to ED's action.

This case of fraud, beginning in 2010, in the Thrissur-based CPM-controlled bank had triggered a political row in the state with the Left party saying that it had done no wrong. A charge-sheet was filed by the ED last year in November against a total of 55 accused entities as part of the money laundering probe linked to the Karuvannur Service Cooperative bank.

The ED has said its probe in the case found that "on the instructions of certain persons, who were district-level leaders and committee members of a 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 members of Society, it alleged. The investigation also revealed that benami loans were sanctioned to non-members against inflated property valuations in the names of other members and such loan funds were siphoned off and laundered by the accused beneficiaries.