The Kerala police team probing the massive fraud that surfaced in July at the local CPI-M controlled Trissur Karavanoor Cooperative Bank, on Monday made the arrest of four of its now disbanded board members.
After the detection of the fraud the board of the bank was disbanded.
The fraud that was detected according to State Cooperative Minister V.N. Vasavan, also a top CPI-M leader, is to the tune of over Rs 104.37 crore and the state government was quick to launch a Crime Branch probe into it and have arraigned six people, all employees, as accused in their first information report that has already been filed and were later arrested.
Even though the Minister says the fraud is to the tune of Rs 104 crore, the Congress opposition says that figure is only a minuscule of the actual amount.
The fresh arrest includes its former president K.K. Divakaran and three other directors and more importantly all of them are CPI-M members.
The Enforcement Directorate also have begun its probe into the siphoning of the money as reports have surfaced that they have invested a huge portion of this money at a resort in Thekkady.
The scam came into light after the local Cooperative officials conducted an inspection.
The inspection was carried out after locals gave a complaint that things are not fair in the bank.
Following the inspection by the Cooperative Inspectors, the complaint was found to be true and it surfaced that loan money given on various property documents was credited to a few accounts, while some had no clue that loans were being sanctioned based on their property documents.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan who came under the heat from a combined onslaught from the opposition Congress and BJP combine had promised that all wrong doers will be taken to task and none will be spared and the fresh round of arrest can be attributed to Vijayan’s strong stand.