Thrissur: Police arrested nine Youth Congress workers on Tuesday after they took out a march to the house of former minister and CPM legislator A C Moideen.
The protest march was held after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials, attached to its Kochi headquarters, began raiding Moideen's house in connection with a money laundering probe into the alleged Rs 200-crore fraud at the Karuvannur Service Cooperative Bank.
Police stopped the march, which began from the Malaya Junction in Kunnamkulam, by erecting barricades metres away from the MLA's house. Youth Congress Kunnamkulam constituency president A M Nitheesh, district vice-president Adv P K Shyamkumar and others were among those arrested.
Meanwhile, tense scenes prevailed near Moideen's house when CPM workers blocked a march taken out by the Congress and UDF activists. The Congress workers demanded Moideen's resignation as MLA. The Congressmen alleged that the CPM members, led by Wadakanchery municipality chairman P N Surendran, hit them while they were staging agitation.
Accompanied by the paramilitary personnel, the ED team of 12 officers began searches at 7 am and continued till late in the evening. Moideen was present at his house during the raid.
It is alleged that numerous loans were approved fraudulently by the CPM-controlled cooperative bank and funds running into crores of rupees were disbursed to even the non-member benamis without proper collateral documents or properties. ED is currently investigating whether Moideen knew about these transactions.
