ED raids cooperative bank in Kerala

PTI, Aug 25, 2022, 5:04 PM IST

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday carried out a raid on the Karuvannur Cooperative Bank where a Rs 300-crore scam has allegedly taken place.

An ED source told PTI that the raid began in the morning and was still continuing. ”The ED officials are examining the documents which were sealed earlier,” the source said.

On August 10, the ED raided the houses of the accused in the scam.

The agitated depositors are on a warpath against the management of the ruling CPI(M)-controlled Karuvannur Cooperative Bank, located at Irinjalakuda, demanding the return of their money.

The loan scam was reported in the bank in Thrissur district in July 2021. Following this, a case against six bank officials was filed and an inquiry commenced.

After several people, including local customers, raised apprehension over the bank’s functioning, an audit was conducted there recently, in which the charges were reportedly found to be true.

During the inspection, it was also found that loans were sanctioned on the property pledged by local customers without their knowledge and the loan amount was credited multiple times to the selected account.

Following the allegations, the 13-member committee of the Marxist party-ruled bank was disbanded.

After an interval, the bank again triggered a controversy last month over the death of a woman depositor, whose family had alleged that she was denied money for advanced treatment by the management despite having lakhs of rupees as deposit in the scam-hit bank.

They staged a sit-in protest also in front of the bank with the woman’s body, which triggered a political row in the southern State as Opposition parties came out against the ruling CPI(M) which controls the bank.