Was this plot meant for a CPI(M) office?
The CPI(M) has denied the ED's allegations and said it will legally and politically oppose any move by the investigating agency to make it an accused in a case related to the alleged multi-crore Karuvannur bank scam. The party's state secretary MV Govindan alleged that the ED was trying to make opposition parties and their leaders accused in various cases for political reasons. The ED believes that the plot it has seized was meant for the CPI(M) party office and was purchased from alleged bribes received from borrowers or beneficiaries of loans sanctioned by the Karuvannur Service Cooperative Bank.
Accused of embezzlement of Rs 300 crore
In the Thrissur case, it is alleged that bank employees embezzled about Rs 300 crore and local officials of the ruling CPI(M) were involved in the scam. Karuvannur is one of the cooperative banks that has been accused of financial fraud in the last three years. The entire matter is being investigated by the ED. The bank had refused to return the money of several thousand customers. This scam shook the CPI(M) government in the state in 2021. The Kerala government used to boast of having a strong cooperative bank, now the same bank is accused of scam.
Serious allegations against minister
The ED had said last year that the bank had disbursed benami loans at the behest of CPI(M) MLA and former minister AC Moideen. In August 2023, the ED raided Moideen's house in Thrissur. Moideen was the minister of the local self-government department from 2016 to 2021 during the LDF regime. Earlier, he was serving as the district secretary of the CPI(M) in Thrissur. The bank had 12,000 depositors and some allegedly committed suicide when the bank refused to return their money.
`; articlesDiv.innerHTML += articleHTML; }); } // Initialize and render feeds fetchAndRenderFeeds();
