The Enforcement Directorate (ED), on Tuesday, arrested Vadakanchery municipal councillor and CPI-M leader P R Aravindakshan in connection with the Karuvannur Cooperative Bank fraud case.
Aravindakshan was arrested from his house at Wadakkancherry in Trissur and brought to the ED office in Kochi.
Arivandakshan is incidentally the first CPI-M leader to be taken into custody in connection with the scam. Earlier, CPI-M leader and former minister AC Moideen MLA and CPI-M state committee member MK Kannan were questioned by the ED for their alleged involvement in the fraud.
In the report filed before the PMLA Special court in Kochi earlier, the ED had stated that Satheeshkumar, the prime accused in the case, was aided by Aravindakshan and another CPI-M Wadakkancherry counsellor, Madhu in the money lending business worth around Rs 500 crore.
It has been alleged that Satheeskumar took loans from Karuvanur Bank using benami borrowers. It is further alleged that it was Aravindakshan who intermediated for Satheeshkumar to acquire documents of borrowers mortgaged at Karuvanur Bank for receiving the loan.
The loan defaulters were threatened by Satheeshkumar’s goons and such acts have been intermediated by Aravindakshan and Madhu, both members of the CPI-M, the ED reportedly said in its report filed in the court
It has been reported that Karuvannur Cooperative Bank manager Biju MK also gave a statement to the ED against Aravindakshan. Biju MK deposed that he and his family were threatened by Aravindakshan and Madhu for depositing Rs 50 lakh in their name as a fixed deposit from the loan disbursed in cash to Satheeshkumar. The ED suspect that Aravindakshan is the middle-man between Satheeshkumar and AC Moideen.
Aravindakshan had filed a complaint at the Ernakulam Central Police Station alleging he was assaulted by ED sleuths during interrogation on 12 September.
According to his allegations, he was subjected to harsh treatment as a result of his refusal to provide false statements against senior CPI-M leaders in the case. Though the police conducted a preliminary enquiry based on the complaint, no case was registered.
Meanwhile, CPI-M state secretary MV Govindan termed Aravindakshan’s arrest an attempt to use the Central agency to destroy the state’s cooperative sector He said that the CPI-M would not bow down to the Centre’s alleged efforts to destroy Kerala’s cooperative sector by utilising the Central Agency.
Aravindakshan alleged that he was arrested in a fabricated case. “I am framed in a fake case for revealing that the ED officials physically assaulted me. I am not a criminal or a killer,” Aravindakshan told media persons when he was brought at the ED office in Kochi
In this connection, the ED made a second arrest on Tuesday in the Karuvannur Cooperative Bank fraud case. The ED sleuths arrested former bank accountant CK Jills. Jills was also an accused in a previous case registered by the crime branch wing of Kerala police and he was subsequently arrested by them. Jills has earlier said that he secured the job in the bank as a CPI-M nominee.