Thrissur: An audio clip revealing the attempts by the CPM to conceal the Rs 300-crore fraud at Karuvannur Cooperative Bank has emerged now.
In the clip, the discussions held during a meeting of the Madayikonam branch committee of the CPM held on December 8, 2018 are heard.
The issue of the bank fraud was taken up during this meeting and allegations against the administration of the bank, which is controlled by the CPM, are heard. Incidentally, K K Divakaran, president of the bank’s director board, is a member of the Madayikonam branch committee and took part in the meeting.
Secretary of the Porathissery local committee Raju could be heard pointing out violations and accusing the bank’s administration and officials of major lapses. However, the bank president puts up a defence, saying that he had no role in the fraud. The local committee secretary replies that the president should not consider others as fools.
The meeting was convened after the cooperative bank’s branch manager and a woman director were locked up inside a house when they reached that place to attach the property over failure to repay a loan.
Pregnant silence
The local committee secretary asks the bank president whether each loan wasn’t sanctioned after he signed the documents. The president maintains silence. “How was a mentally challenged person sanctioned a loan? In another instance, a loan of Rs 3 crore was given for a worthless piece of land. Wasn’t you who signed the loan papers?” Raju asks. To each query, Divakaran keeps mum.
The secretary also says the bank administration was damaging the image of the state government.
When contacted, local committee secretary Raju confirmed that the branch committee meeting did take place on that day. However, he refused to divulge details.
Efforts to blame staff
It is clear from the audio clip that the CPM members were directed to keep the fraud away from media attention. Regional leaders are heard telling party members that all efforts should be made for a cover-up.
Meanwhile, the bank’s director board is attempting to shift the entire blame of the fraud to the six employees who have been accused in the case registered by the Crime Branch. According to the bank president and director board members, their signatures in the loan documents were forged by the employees.
In fact, during the audit, it was found that some of the signatures were indeed fakes. However, the employees told the Crime Branch that not all the signatures were forged. Incidentally, the bank president has been claiming all along that his signatures on the loan documents were not genuine.
Meanwhile, in their anticipatory bail plea filed before the court, the accused bank staff had said in an affidavit that all their actions were based on instructions from the politicians controlling the bank administration.
Inspections at resorts
In a related development, Crime Branch officials carried out an inspection at the site of a resort being built by the accused in Thekkady by illegally diverting the money from the bank. The investigation team has already found several instances of real-estate transactions carried out by the accused.
