Kochi: The media has been banned from reporting the court proceedings related to the Karuvannur Cooperative Bank fraud case.

The Ernakulam CBI court passed the order while considering the Enforcement Directorate's application for three-day custody of CPM Athani local committee member and Wadakkanchery municipal councillor P R Aravindakshan and former senior accountant at Karuvannur Bank C K Jills.

Both Aravindakshan and Jills have been arrested by ED under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). Since such cases are related to national security, the court can decide whether the proceedings should be 'in camera' or not. As per reports, the ban was imposed due to this reason.

The ED has said its probe has found that "on the instructions of certain persons, who were district-level leaders and committee members of a certain political party and governed the bank, loans were disbursed by the bank manager through the agent in cash to non-member 'benamis', by mortgaging properties of poor members without their knowledge and (the money) laundered to the benefit of the accused".