Wayanad: Sajeevan Kollappalli, the key accused in the multi-crore fake loan fraud at Pulpalli Cooperative Bank has named more Congress leaders who he alleged colluded with him to facilitate the fraudulent deals.
Sajeevan, who was arrested late on Tuesday, told police that Pulpalli village panchayat president S Dileep Kumar and former bank director Mani Pambanal were also involved in the scam.
Sajeevan, who was absconding since the suicide of farmer Rajendran Nair on May 31, was taken into custody while he was travelling in a bus to Pulpalli. Police said he was hiding at a ginger farm in Karnataka.
Sulthan Bathery Chief Judicial Magistrate Court remanded Sajeevan to 14 days of judicial custody.
While being taken to the court, he told reporters that he had paid large sums as bribes to Congress leaders for sanctioning huge amounts of loans for tiny bits of land.
Sajeevan was arrested on the complaints filed by the family of the late Rajendran Nair and another farmer K P Daniel.
Based on the statement of Sajeevan, police have prepared a new list of accused, sources said.
With the arrest of Sajeevan, four persons have been arrested so far in connection with the fraud, including former president of the cooperative bank K K Abraham, a former general secretary of KPCC, former bank secretary K T Remadevi and Congress mandalam president V M Poulose.
The case
As per the chargesheet filed by Vigilance, the accused in the fraud siphoned off close to Rs 8.5 crore from the cooperative bank. While the bank records showed small-scale farmers as beneficiaries of these loans, in reality, the alleged fraudsters diverted the funds to benami accounts.
The fraud came to the media glare after Nair died by suicide. While Nair had a loan of Rs 80,000, bank records showed that he had pledged his land to avail of a loan of Rs 25 lakh. While the farmer got his loan amount, the rest was siphoned off by scamsters.
In another case, farmer K P Daniel, who took a loan of Rs 2 lakh by pledging 63 cents of land, received a notice to pay Rs 36 lakh to the bank as he had failed to repay on time.
A probe found out that Sajeevan had processed such applications, and the amount was transferred to the account he provided.
