Money from scam-hit Karuvannur co-op bank invested in Thekkady resort project

Money from scam-hit Karuvannur co-op bank invested in Thekkady resort project

Thrissur: The probe into the multi-crore fraud in the Karuvannur Cooperative Bank revealed that substantial amounts that were illegally advanced as loans were invested in a resort project in Thekkady.

Police which conducted the initial probe into the Rs 300 crore loan fraud found that people who were enticed to take loans over Rs 1 crore were compelled by the bank employees to make the investment.

The people behind the resort project were hand in glove with the key personnel of the bank administered by a director board comprising CPM members. The fliers of the resort featured the name of a bank employee.

The Crime Branch which has taken up the case will look into this nexus.

Director board dissolved

The director board of the bank was dissolved on Thursday in the wake of the scam.

M C Ajith, the assistant registrar of cooperative societies, Mukundapuram, has been appointed as the new administrator of the bank.

No action was taken against the director board by the Cooperative department so far despite the Irinjalakuda police registering cases against six persons including the bank secretary in connection with the fraud.

The inaction on the part of authorities had led to widespread criticism including allegations they had succumbed to political pressure. With the criticism gaining further momentum, the cooperation department decided to crack the whip.

The director board headed by CPM Porthassery branch secretary K K Divakaran as president has been ruling the cooperative bank for the past ten years. The board had 12 directors; P K Lalithan, T S Baiju, K V Sugathan, M A Jijo Raj, M A Aslam , M B Dinesh, Jose Chakrampully, N Narayanan, Ambili Mahesh, Mini Nandan and Sumathi Gopalakrishnan.

Suicide by debtor

Meanwhile, a former panchayat member who owed Rs 80 lakh debts to the bank following non-repayment of loan, committed suicide. Thaliyakatil Mukundan, 63, who was a former standing committee chairman and member of the executive committee of the Irinjalakuda block unit of the Congress party, was found hanging in his house.

His family members claimed Mukundan had taken Rs 20 lakh each as loan from the bank twice. However, the bank officers claimed he had taken Rs 50 lakh loan and there was an additional liability of Rs 30 lakh that came upon him for standing as guarantor for a separate loan.

The family said that Mukundan had received a recovery notice from the bank for not repaying the loan.

The bank's secretary in-charge, however, denied that Mukundan had committed suicide after receiving the recovery notice. No such notice had been issued from the bank and a baseless propaganda is being carried out in this regard, he said.

Enquiries revealed that Mukundan had taken Rs 10 lakh loan four years ago by mortgaging 16.3 cents of land on which his house stands. Subsequently the loan was revised. He reportedly took another Rs 10 lakh loan for his daughter's marriage. It was only after the bank passed on the information that his family came to know about Rs 80 lakh debt.

Mukundan had visited the bank the other day. A retired college employee, he tried to repay the loan amount with the money that he received at the time of his retirement. However, that didn't work out.

Mukundan leaves behind his wife Prabhavati, children Deepthi and Dheeraj.

Mukundan's cremation will take place on Friday.

The comments posted here/below/in the given space are not on behalf of Onmanorama. The person posting the comment will be in sole ownership of its responsibility. According to the central government's IT rules, obscene or offensive statement made against a person, religion, community or nation is a punishable offense, and legal action would be taken against people who indulge in such activities.