Kochi: The Directorate of Enforcement (ED), investigating illegal loan frauds in the Kandala Service Cooperative Bank, has named its former President and CPI leader N Bhasurangan, his wife Jayakumari, their son Akhiljith J B, their two daughters and a son-in-law as accused in the first charge sheet submitted to a special court in Kochi on Friday, January 19.
This preliminary charge sheet is confined to former CPI leader Bhasurangan's family profiteering by availing illegal loans and not repaying them, said ED's special public prosecutor Santhosh M J.
Except for Bhasurangan, the rest of the family members named as accused had availed multiple loans by remortgaging a 16-cent plot over and over again. But all the loan amount has been re-routed to Bhasurangan's bank account, he said. "The total outstanding against the family stood at Rs 3.2 crore," said Santhosh.
The State government's Department of Cooperation had initially detected massive fraud in the CPI-controlled Kandala Service Cooperative Bank in Thiruvananthapuram's Maranalloor village. It found that the fraudulent activities depreciated the society's assets by Rs 101 crore during seven years between 2015 and 2021. "Bhasurangan happened to be the overall in-charge of the bank as President, who played a key role in sanctioning various unauthorised loans," said ED when he and his son Akhiljith were arrested on November 21, 2023.
When the central agency first detained him for questioning earlier that month, the Communist Party of India downgraded him from the party's District Executive Council to a mandalam committee. Later, he was expelled from the party.
Bhasurangan was also removed as the administrator of the Milma or Kerala Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (KCMMF).
The Directorate of Enforcement took up the case after several FIRs were registered against the President and the Secretary of Kandala Service Co-operative Bank at the Maranalloor Police Station.
ED's preliminary investigations revealed that Rs 57 crore was embezzled from the bank. It found that the cooperative society gave a loan of Rs 2.04 crore to Maranalloor Ksheera Vyavsaya Sangam Limited. Bhasurangan was managing the affairs of the dairy society, too.
According to the Kerala Cooperative Societies Act, loans can be given only to members and entities cannot become members of cooperative societies.
According to ED, Kandala Service Co-operative Bank initiated no steps to recover the illegal loans, despite the beneficiaries defaulting on repayment.
Bhasurangan was highly influential in CPI and also enjoyed a good relationship with leaders of the CPM. He was the chairman of the Kandala Cooperative Hospital, and president of the Maranalloor Ksheera Vyavasaya Sangam Limited when the scam became public. He was the former president of Maranalloor Grama Panchayat, the former president of Thiruvananthapuram District Cooperative Bank, and the former executive director of Kerala Shipping and Inland Navigation Corporation.
ED's special public prosecutor Santhosh said that the bigger fraud perpetrated in the bank would be dealt with in the supplementary charge sheet.
Bhasurangan headed the bank when it sanctioned multiple loans to the same clients, inflated the value of land mortgaged, remortgaged the same property multiple times, illegally appointed and promoted relatives and friends in the various subsidiaries of the society, and bought vehicles, said Santhosh. "The details of the investigation into these crimes will come in the supplementary charge sheet," he said.
