In a major blow to CPI-M in the Karuvannur Service Cooperative Bank money laundering case, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) temporarily attached the party’s Porathissery office land and eight bank accounts in Thrissur district.
A provisional order under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) has been issued by the ED for attaching the assets on Friday.
.The total value of attached properties is Rs 29 crore. The properties include CPI-M Porathissery party office’s 10-cent land registered in the name of district secretary M M Varghese.
The ED says that the CPI-M purchased the property in Porathussery using the proceeds of the money laundering carried out by the accused in the Karuvannur case.
Apart from this, the Central probe agency has reportedly attached around Rs 60 lakh spread across eight bank accounts. These include five bank accounts of the CPI-M in the Karuvannur Service Cooperative Bank, and two fixed deposit accounts of the CPI-M Thrissur district committee and a savings account of the party Irinjalakuda area committee in three other banks.
This is the third attachment notice brought by ED in connection with the case. So far, the agency has attached properties to the tune of Rs 87.85 crore. Most of these properties, including movable and immovable assets, belonged to the prime accused persons, including local CPM leaders.
The ED had named CPI-M as a key accused in the case after the probe revealed that money involved in the scam was diverted to party bank accounts.It is for the first time in Kerala that a political party has been made an accused in a money-laundering case. Earlier, the ED had arraigned the Aam Aadmi Party(AAP) as an accused in the Dellhi liquor policy case .
The ED sources said following the investigation, it was revealed that proceeds of crime from the Karuvannur bank were diverted to various bank accounts of the CPI-M. “The party also maintained bogus accounts in the Karuvannur bank. Thus we arraigned CPM as the accused in the case. As part of the proceedings, the party properties were attached,” they said.
The alleged fraud in the Karuvannur Service Cooperative Bank, which was under the control of the CPI-M, came to light in 2021, with the suicide of a former panchayat member TM Mukundan. He was asked to repay a loan of Rs 50 lakh by the bank, which he had never taken.
The Crime Branch took over the investigation from the local police in July 2021. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) started an investigation under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act into the scam which is probing the bank fraud estimated to be above Rs 300 crore.
Meanwhile, CPI-M Kerala secretary Secretary MV. Govindan said that he is yet to receive any notice from the ED about the agency’s purported move to arraign his party as an accused of the Karuvannoor Service Cooperative Bank scam.
He said in New Delhi that the Central Government has ruthlessly used the ED to silence dissent and the CPI-M is the latest victim of the BJP’s political witch-hunt using agencies. However, Govindan said the Central Government would fail in its bid to intimidate the CPI-M into silence.
CPI-M‘s Thrissur district committee secretary MM. Varghese said that he is unaware of the ED’s move to name the party as an accused in the case.
The CPI-M is wary of the political fallout of the ED’s action against the party leadership in the the Karuvannur cooperative bank scam. The Congress and the BJP exploited the bank scam to assail the CPI-M and mar its public image in the state.