THRISSUR: A nine-member committee headed by Co-operation Department Joint Secretary PK Gopakumar will probe the Karuvannur Co-operative bank fraud at the departmental level. The government on Saturday directed that an interim report be submitted within ten days and a final report within a month.

Earlier, Kerala Kaumudi had reported that a high-level probe would be launched into the Karuvannur scam. The committee consists of Additional Registrar (Credit) Binoy Kumar, Kannur Joint Director E. Rajendran, Assistant Registrar, and Nodal Officer (IT) Ayyappan Nair, Kerala Bank Technical Expert Adisheshan, Kattakada Assistant Registrar (General) Jayachandran, Chirayinkeezhu Assistant Registrar (General) Jernail Singh and two nominees from the Co-operative Inspectors.

Strict action will be taken if it is found that officials had made lapses in detecting irregularities in a timely manner. The probe comes as the CPM and the government found themselves on the defensive after it was alleged that the corruption involving CPM members was not prevented despite knowing about it.

The probe team has received information that the accused in the case had invested most of the money in the real estate and hotel industry. Since they did not get much profit from it, they swindled money by secretly mortgaging the documents submitted by the owners for loan. Hence, they will also be booked for forging and using fake documents.