CPM received shares from Karuvannur loans, reveals ED; leaders including party district secretary will be named accused

KOCHI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has begun moves to name prominent CPM leaders, including Thrissur district secretary MM Varghese, as accused in the Karuvannur Cooperative Bank fraud case.

The ED confirmed that the CPM received shares from the illegal loans in the bank and that this money was used to buy land in the name of the district secretary to build the party office. This is the reason why the party was named accused. Three cents, which were bought at Rs 10 lakh per cent, were confiscated. The ED also confiscated Rs 63.62 lakh from eight undisclosed accounts of various local committees of the CPM.

An important finding was that the secretary, the governing body and the then-bank manager sanctioned benami and illegal loans with the permission of the CPM district committee. Benami loans were granted even to non-members of the bank at higher rates than the value of the property given as collateral. More than one member committed fraud by placing the same property as collateral.

ED actions

• Beneficiaries of the illegal loans, Satheesh Kumar, Kiran PP, Aravindakshan and Jills were arrested under the PMLA Act.
• Assets worth Rs 30.7 crore were confiscated from a person named Bijoy
• 57.79 crore rupees were confiscated from those who received fake loans
• Total value of confiscated properties and money- Rs 117.78 crore. Assets worth Rs 29.29 crore were confiscated from the party and other individuals the other day.