The Enforcement Directorate (ED) carried out raids on Friday at the offices of the Nemom Service Cooperative Bank in Thiruvananthapuram as part of a money laundering investigation into alleged financial irregularities, officials said.
A team from the ED’s Kochi unit began search operations in the morning at several branches of the bank. Searches were also carried out at the homes of the bank’s board members and secretaries in different parts of Thiruvananthapuram.
Around 1200 depositors had deposited Rs 112 crore in the bank. Earlier, it was found that there was an irregularity of Rs 96 crore. Soon after the news of the fraud emerged, the former president and secretary of the bank’s governing body, ruled by the CPM, were arrested. CPM area committee member and former president of the bank, R Pradeep Kumar, and former secretary Balachandran Nair were arrested.
Balachandran Nair committed a fraud of Rs 20.76 crore and Pradeep Kumar a fraud of Rs 3 crore. Although a charge sheet has been filed against former secretary A R Rajendra Kumar, who committed a fraud of Rs 32 crore and S S Sandhya, who committed an irregularity of Rs 10.41 crore, as accused, no arrests were made. The figures of losses caused to the bank by each of the board members over a period of ten years have also come to light.
The government appointed committee found that only Rs 15.55 crore of this was pledged as collateral. Meanwhile, a few days ago, the bank had detained the administrator in protest against the non-return of money to the investors despite the withdrawal of more than Rs 60 lakh.
ED officials said the investigation under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) began after the Kerala Cooperative Department reported serious financial irregularities at the bank. The bank, which is linked to the CPI(M), is currently under administrative control due to these irregularities.
A preliminary inquiry by the Cooperative Department found loan-related manipulations involving nearly Rs 100 crore. The investigation revealed that loans were given to people who were not members of the bank and in many cases without proper guarantees, officials said.
Earlier, the Kerala Crime Branch had registered a case and arrested former bank secretaries related to the irregularities. At present, former secretaries and board members continue to be accused in the Crime Branch case, officials added.
-
-
-
-
-
-
