The Enforcement Directorate(ED) filed the first charge sheet in Karuvannur Service Co-operative Bank loan fraud case at the Special Court, trying the offences registered under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in Kochi on Wednesday.
The ED has named 50 persons and five companies as accused in its first charge sheet filed at the PMLA Court in Kochi.
Though 90 defaulters owe Rs 343 crore to the bank, the interim charge sheet has pegged the fraud of the 55 accused at Rs 90 crore. The 12 accused indicted by the Kerala Police’s Crime Branch also find a place in the ED’s charge sheet.
Private financier Satheesh Kumar P and CPI-M leader and Wadakkanchery municipal councillor Aravindakshan P R are the 13th and 14th accused in the ED’s charge sheet.
Of the five companies named as accused, three companies belong to the prime accused Bejoy AK, a commission agent of the bank who owes around Rs 85 crore, including interest, to the bank.
The other two companies, Platinum Laboratories, and Catrix Technologies, are owned by accused Kiran P P, who owes Rs 48.57 crore to the bank.
The ED sources said the others involved in the fraud would be named as accused in the next round of charge sheet. Those include politicians, who assisted, abetted, and pressurised bank officials to sanction the illegal loans and those who illegally borrowed less than Rs 5 crore would be named in the next charge sheet, they said.
The ED filed the charge sheet 57 days after it made the first arrests in the case, in order to deny default bail to the accused. If the agency fails to file the charge sheet before 60 days of the first arrests in the case, the accused will become eligible for the default bail.
The ED brought the 12,000-page charge sheet in six boxes to the Special PMLA Court in Kochi on Wednesday evening.
The names of prominent CPI-M leaders who are alleged to have a role in the fraud didn’t figure in this charge sheet. It is learnt that their names would be included in a supplementary charge sheet that could be filed later.