Karuvannur bank scam: Valuables ‘disappear’ from houses of accused ahead of property attachment

Thrissur: Revenue recovery proceedings in the Karuvannur Co-operative Bank scam are on. However, the Revenue Department officials who arrived to carry out property attachment were in for a surprise as the accused shifted materials, including furniture, from their homes.

All that a revenue recovery team could seize from the house of former manager Biju Karim, who is accused of siphoning Rs 25.84 crore, was a television set, a sofa, a dining table, a bed and some chairs.

The officials had aimed to recover assets worth Rs 11.35 crore through the attachment proceedings.

Similarly, costly equipment, including TV sets, was found to be removed from the houses of the accused, including the governing body president, before the arrival of the revenue officials.

The Revenue Department has set a target of recovering Rs 125.83 crore from the accused of the Rs 300-crore fraud. The remaining Rs 175 crore is unaccounted.

Allegations are rife that political pressure had been exerted to reduce the liability of the accused to Rs 125 crore by claiming that there is no

apparent evidence of their involvement in the crime, even though a forensic examination of the accounts by three senior auditors over a

period of two years had found that there was an embezzlement of Rs 300 crore from the bank.

Revenue recovery proceedings had commenced in March based on the report of the Joint Registrar of Cooperatives after no one repaid the money even after they were given sufficient time to do so.

Two years ago, the scam came to light after several people who took loans received recovery notices for amounts greater than they had borrowed. The borrowers approached the Registrar of Cooperatives and a probe revealed crores were swindled.