Kandala Cooperative Bank fraud: ED takes N Bhasurangan into custody

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has taken N Bhasurangan, the former president of Kandala Bank, into custody in the Kandala Cooperative Bank fraud case. The Enforcement authorities took Bhasurangan into custody after the ED officials conducted a raid at his son's house in Poojapura. The officials have taken Bhasurangan to his house in Kandala.

ED started inspections at Bhasurangan's establishments and home today morning. The officers arrived for the inspection yesterday under the guard of armed security forces in three vehicles. The search was conducted at the house of N Bhasurangan in Maranalloor and the houses of former bank secretaries Rajendran Nair, Shantha Kumari and Mohan Kumar collection agent Anil Kumar. Bhasurangan's house was locked. As a result, the team of officials could not enter the house in the morning. Later, the ED officials took Bhasurangan into custody and took him to his home.

The ED officials also searched the hotel owned by Bhasurangan's son. Documents related to bank transactions, ledger books, computer records, minute books etc were seized. The officials also seized Bhasurangan's mobile phone and personal computer.

Bhasurangan has been the president of Kandala Cooperative Bank for the last 30 years. He is a CPI leader. Officials of the Cooperative Department had found that all information related to the fraud had been removed from the computer. It was also found that computerization in the bank was not as directed by the Registrar of Cooperatives. It is learnt that the inspections will continue. The team from the Kochi office of ED will collect information from more people.