Last Updated: September 19, 2023, 23:58 IST
Thiruvananthapuram, India
The ED had first carried out raids in this case in August final 12 months. (File Image: Information18)
The cash laundering case stems from 16 FIRs registered by the Kerala Police (crime department) in Thrissur
The Enforcement Directorate has performed searches at 9 places in Kerala in reference to an alleged Rs 150-crore rip-off in CPI(M) managed Karuvannur Service Cooperative Bank Ltd, officers mentioned Tuesday.
The company arrested the prime accused Sathish Kumar P and Kiran P P earlier this month. The searches had been performed in opposition to ‘benamis’ and beneficiaries who allegedly siphoned off greater than Rs. 150 crore from the financial institution, the ED mentioned in a press release.
“During the searches and survey operations, 800 grams gold and Rs 5.5 lakh had been seized from the residential premises of Sunil Kumar, from the residence of Anilkumar, 05 paperwork of worth roughly Rs 15 crore had been seized and from the residential premises of Deepak S, 19 paperwork of worth greater than Rs 5 Crore had been seized being proceeds of crime,” it said.
The agency has also retrieved 25 benami properties documents dealt by Satheesh Kumar, it said.
The ED had taken over the investigation on the idea of FIRs filed by the Kerala Police.
“ED investigation initiated on the basis of Police FIRs alleging that the accused had swindled public money through irregularities in the sanctioning process. ED investigation into the fraud has revealed that on the instructions of District level leaders of a political party and committee members who 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 accused,” the company mentioned in a press release.
This case of alleged fraud, starting in 2010, in the Thrissur-based financial institution has triggered a political row in the state.
The cash laundering case stems from 16 FIRs registered by the Kerala Police (crime department) in Thrissur.
Kiran P P was the “beneficiary of illegally sanctioned loans in the names of benamis utilizing benami properties and thereby generated proceeds of crime to the tune of Rs 48.57 crore together with principal and curiosity which remained unpaid to the financial institution”, the ED had alleged.
Sathish Kumar P also committed the alleged offence and generated proceeds of crime of more than Rs 14 crore in the form of illegal loans from the bank, it had claimed.
“Many such benami loans were disbursed on the instructions of A C Moideen,” it had alleged in a press release issued on August 23, a day after the raids had been undertaken.
Moideen, 67, had advised the press that the ED motion was “pre-planned,” adding he would cooperate with any investigation. He is a former minister for cooperation and industries and currently represents the Kunnamkulam constituency in the state Assembly.
The ED had first carried out raids in this case in August last year at six locations, including a branch of the bank located in Irinjalakuda, Thrissur. It had attached assets worth Rs 30.70 crore of a commission agent of the bank, Bijoy A K.
(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – PTI)
