Kochi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has uncovered five more anonymous accounts in the money laundering case involving Karuvannur Co-operative Bank in Thrissur. These clandestine accounts were used to deposit commissions for the approval of benami loans. The ED has confirmed that P R Aravindakshan, the key accused and a CPM local leader controlled these accounts.
Earlier, the ED had identified two secret accounts held by the accused in the Karuvannur bank, where the benami loan fraud amounting to Rs 350 crore took place. Transactions of more than Rs. 50 lakh in commissions were made through all these secret accounts.
With these major findings, the probe team will question CPM State committee member and Thrissur district secretary M M Varghese again on December 19 in connection with the case. Varghese was questioned on November 24 and December 1. Though a notice was served, summoning him for an interrogation on December 5, he skipped it on account of the Nava Kerala Sadas which was being held in Thrissur.
It is learnt that Varghese provided only partial documents of the ones requested by the ED. Hence, he has been instructed to furnish all the necessary documents during his appearance on December 19. The CPM district leadership, which hastily asserted that the party had no secret accounts in the Karuvannur bank, now finds itself in a predicament.
The ED has successfully uncovered digital evidence for all transactions conducted through these accounts. It is hinted that a portion of the fraudulent loans worth crores of rupees was transferred to these anonymous bank accounts.
