Karuvannur scam; M M Varghese to appear before ED today

THRISSUR: CPM Thrissur District Secretary MM Varghese will appear before the Enforcement Directorate today in the Karuvannur Cooperative Bank fraud case. Varghese had been summoned three times to appear, but he said he would appear today as the Lok Sabha election campaign was in its final stages. Earlier, ED had interrogated Varghese for several hours in the Karuvannur issue.

A report was given to the Central Finance Department, the Reserve Bank and the Central Election Commission that despite the ED's request, the governing bodies were not ready to provide the annual audit report of the cooperative banks in the district. The ED is mainly investigating whether the share of money siphoned from Karuvannur Co-operative Bank through benami loans went to accounts in other Co-operative Banks. ED also questioned former MP PK Biju. The Income Tax Department also stated that CPM has a secret account in Karuvannur and some other banks in Thrissur.