Happenings about fraud and money laundering surrounding the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPM) -controlled Karuvannur Cooperative Bank keep on unfolding in Thrissur and Ernakulam. Every day media reveals more and more malpractices. For the first few days, CPM kept on propagating that it was the Modi Government’s sinister move to sabotage the cooperative banking system in the State. Initially, there were several takers for that narrative. But, day by day more and more fraudulent practices are being revealed by Enforcement Directorate (ED).
Therefore, CPM is not in a position to continue its onslaught against the union government. Because people are privy to the realities. They are no longer ready to swallow what CPM’s Goebbelsian propaganda machinery informs. Everything is at the fingertips of the people these days. Even party cadres believe that bank employees are made scapegoats. The Party’s claim that no depositors will lose their money has been proved to be a mere empty statement. They know the people died as they could not get their deposits back for the treatments. Some people could not get the deposits back for the expenses in connection with their daughters’ weddings.
BJP national vice president A P Abdullakutty told the media men that these sorts of anti-people banking have been spread to Thrissur by the Kannur lobby of CPM. He was referring to the CPM machinations in capturing the control of cooperative banks in Kannur district where CPM enjoys the most powerful party apparatus. He said AC Moideen and Kannan are the operators on behalf of CPM State leadership.
The latest news suggests that 800 gms of gold, Rs 20.05 cr and the title deeds for 49 properties have been confiscated during ED raids, 25 of which pertain to named (proxies) properties. Hundreds of documents have been confiscated for scrutiny. In 25-hour-long raids that were conducted on September 18 and 19, 800gms gold and Rs 5.5 lakhs were confiscated from the Thrissur house of Konakkapparambil Sunilkumar, a gold merchant. Title deeds about five documents worth Rs 15 cr have been confiscated from the house of real estate man Anilkumar. Anilkumar had availed a loan of Rs 18.5 cr from Karuvannur Cooperative Bank.
ED has reportedly found that CPM leadership and police have been protecting Anilkumar. Title deeds of 19 properties worth Rs 5 cr have been confiscated from the house of Deepak Sathyapalan, a hotelier in Kochi. Title deeds of 25 properties have been confiscated from the houses of document writers in Viyyoor, Thrissur. They are alleged to have prepared benamee (proxy) documents for P Satheeshkumar.
In the meantime, former Cooperative Minister and CPM leader, A C Moideen, did not go for ED’s interrogation on September 19. Workshop for MLAs in Thiruvananthapuram is the reason in the news. Remands of P P Kiran and P Satheeshkumar have been extended to October 3.
It’s high time the Union Government conducted an efficient scrutiny of the transactions and activities of the cooperative banks in the State, especially in the wake of money laundering which always has terror links. Terror activities and money laundering are two sides of the same coin.
