Kochi: The Kerala High Court on Monday directed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to transfer the seized documents from the investigation into the Karuvannur Service Cooperative Bank scam to the Kerala Police Crime Branch.
The court has also given the Crime Branch two months to review the documents, reported Manorama News.
The Crime Branch initiated its investigation into the bank scam case in July 2021, and a year later, the ED took over the probe. During a subsequent raid at the bank, ED officials seized multiple records related to the "illegal" loans issued by the bank.
According to the Crime Branch, the possession of documents by the ED has delayed the identification of suspects in the case. Previously, the Crime Branch had made a similar request to retrieve the records in the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court.
The money laundering case stems from 16 FIRs registered by the Crime Branch in Thrissur. This case of alleged fraud, beginning in 2010, in the Thrissur-based CPM-controlled bank had triggered a political row in the state with the Opposition targetting the ruling party for its involvement in the scam. The CPM has maintained that it had done no wrong.
The ED said its probe 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 against the same property multiple times without the knowledge of members of Society, according to the probe agency.
Investigation has 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, the agency had said in a statement earlier. Four people have been arrested by the ED in this case so far.
As part of the investigation, the ED seized assets worth Rs 73 lakh belonging to the CPM, including a land parcel valued at Rs 10 lakh in Thrissur district and Rs 63 lakh in deposits spread across five undisclosed bank accounts. However, the CPM has denied the ED's allegations and stated that it will challenge the agency's actions both legally and politically.
