Pinarayi Vijayan calls ED probe into Karuvannur bank scam 'politically motivated witch hunt'

Kerala Chief Minister Pinararyi Vijayan on Wednesday said the Enforcement Directorate (ED) probe into the Karuvannur bank scam was a 'politically motivated witch hunt' aimed at discrediting the state's cooperative sector which was its 'financial backbone'.

Vijayan said that the effective functioning of the cooperative sector and its huge contributions to the state's economic growth had 'disrupted' the happiness of some persons and made them restless.

A day after the ED arrested a local CPI(M) leader in the case, the CM claimed that the agency probe was part of a concerted attack aimed at 'destroying' the cooperative sector of the state, especially in anticipation of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

'The aim was to create an impression that the entire co-operative sector in the state was in trouble,' the CM said.

Vijayan said that there were 16,255 Cooperative Societies registered under Registrar of Cooperatives in the State and proper inspections were being carried out all the time.

He said that of them, about 98.5 percent of the societies were working flawlessly and some irregularities were found in less than 1.5 percent of them, which cannot be reason enough to discredit the entire sector which has been working effectively.

Regarding the scam, the CM said that the state government had not taken it lightly and were taking appropriate action like freezing accounts and arresting many of the accused, when the ED came into the picture.

'When the Crime Branch wing of the Kerala police was effectively probing the case, the intervention of the ED, its taking over of the files and its special interest in the matter can only be seen as being politically motivated,' he said.

Vijayan contended that the zeal shown by the ED in probing the Karuvannur scam case while ignoring banking irregularities and frauds in many other states makes one naturally suspect that the agency was acting in anticipation of the Lok Sabha elections.

'They have many intentions. But they will not succeed in carrying them out here as our culture is different from what they have come across in other parts of the country,' the CM said while answering reporters' queries regarding the case during a press conference held here.

He said that besides the Crime Branch probe, the Cooperation Department had also conducted an investigation into the scam, the Governing Body of the bank was dissolved, an Administrative Committee was appointed and later an order was passed to recover the losses incurred as a result of the irregularities.

The state government and the cooperative department have also announced and implemented a restructuring package to bring the bank out of collapse and subsequent to its implementation, refund of deposits were resumed from October 15, 2022, Vijayan claimed.

Earlier in the day, the Congress-led opposition UDF slammed the ruling CPI(M) over the Karuvannur bank fraud case, by alleging that on one side the Left party said the investors wouldn't lose their money and on the other it was protecting the culprits behind the scam.

Terming the stand taken on the issue by Vijayan, CPI(M) and the state government as 'hypocritical,' Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the Assembly V D Satheesan demanded that immediate steps be taken to return the money of investors, which also includes Left party workers.

'The CPI(M) and the state government are not with the general public who are the victims. They are with the robbers who looted the investors,' the LoP said.

The ED on Tuesday arrested a local leader -- Wadakkanchery Municipal Councillor P R Aravindakshan -- of the party in connection with the bank fraud case, a move which the Left party termed as a 'political witch-hunt.' The agency has also arrested a former employee of the Karuvannur cooperative bank, C K Jills, who allegedly syphoned off Rs five crore bank funds.

The ED had earlier arrested Kiran P P and Satheesh Kumar P in connection with the alleged issuance of benami loans from the Karuvannur bank.

The investigation into the alleged fraud, beginning in 2010, in the Thrissur-based bank stems from 16 FIRs registered by the Kerala Police (crime branch) in Thrissur.

The ED has said its probe has found that 'on the instructions of certain persons, who were district-level leaders and committee members of a certain political party and governed the bank, loans were disbursed by the bank manager through the agent in cash to non-member 'benamis', by mortgaging properties of poor members without their knowledge and (the money) laundered to the benefit of the accused'.

The ED had first carried out raids in this case in August last year at six locations, including a branch of the bank located in Irinjalakuda, Thrissur.