Pulpally: The trust deficit plaguing the cooperative banking sector of Kerala is staring at mounting uncertainties with alleged scams surfacing every other day.

The latest in the series of loan or deposit swindles has emerged from the Pulpally Cooperative Bank in the Wayanad district.

Shocking stories of loan fraud from the aforesaid bank emerged following a farmer’s suicide and the arrest of its former president.

K P Daniel's family had taken a loan of Rs 2 lakh from the Pulpally bank. Now the family has to repay more than Rs 1 crore to the bank.

Daniel’s 33 cents of land at Anappara and his wife’s 28 cents in Kelakkavala were pledged at the bank for availing the loan in 2018.

Daniel now rues of being a passive signatory as his loan application was processed. He neither visited the bank nor enquired about the loan amount that was being sanctioned, according to him.

The documents were all readied by one K Sajeevan who was close to the family. The loan was sought to invest in ginger cultivation in Karnataka in which Daniel’s sons Shiju, Shibu as well as Sajeevan had stakes.

But Daniel and wife Sarahkutty were shocked in dismay when they received a notice from the bank after they defaulted on the repayment.

The notice stated a joint loan of Rs 36 lakh (Rs 16 lakh and Rs 20 lakh) was granted to the family. It was later found that the money was transferred to the account numbers Sajeevan had provided at the bank.

Every time, the family received a notice from the bank, Sajeevan had said he would settle it. As there was no action, Daniel approached the then bank president K K Abraham at his house. Later, the panchayat president S Dileep Kumar, area MLA I C Balakrishnan, and Meenangadi bishop intervened to solve the problem. Sajeevan and his brother Shaji had reiterated that they would return the document pledged after settling the loan.

Meanwhile, Daniel’s son Shiju dissociated from the ginger farm in Karnataka. He did not recieve anything that Sajeevan had promised, he said. Daniel and his family currently live in a ramshackle house owned by their daughter Sheeba. The couple even held a protest for about seven months.

Daniel said that Sajeevan has availed another loan of Rs 25 lakh in the name of Daniel’s son Shiju after registering a power of attorney for somebody else’s land in Shiju’s name. The other day, the repayment default notice for this loan had arrived too.

Rajendran Nair, who committed suicide last month, Kallikkal Saji, Gopalan and others had also participated in the protest along with the couple.

Today, 70-year-old Daniel and his 65-year-old wife Sarahkutty fear  losing their house and other property.

As reported police arrested K K Abraham and bank secretary K T Ramadevi over the suicide of Rajendran Nair on Wednesday.