At a time when the Government of Kerala is on a warpath with the Union Government over the latter’s decision to set up a Ministry of cooperate affairs which the former alleges to be a blatant encroachment into the rights of the State, suicide of a senior Congress leader in Thrissur district over the irregularities in Karuvannur Cooperative Bank has come as an embarrassment to the ruling Left Democratic Front.
Officials of the State Cooperative Department, in their preliminary investigation has come across financial impropriety to the tune of Rs 1,000 crore in the bank. The Registrar of Cooperative Department on Thursday night dissolved the director board of the Bank and appointed an assistant registrar as administrator. The director board of the Bank was full of CPI(M) nominees.
T M Mukundan, a 59-year-old Congress leader, committed suicide by hanging in his house on Thursday. According to family members, Mukundan resorted to the extreme measure following the receipt of a revenue recovery notice from the Bank.
According to family members, Mukundan had availed loan worth `25 lakh in lieu of 16.5 cents land and a house. “But the revenue recovery notice says the loan amount was `80 lakh and interest. He was summoned by the Bank authorities and asked to settle the loan without delay. We were in the process of disposing a property to settle the loan but of late the Bank authorities started to torment him with threats,” said a close relation of Mukundan.
But the Bank officials state that Mukundan had availed loan amount of `50 lakh on 2018 March 3. “He stood security for another person for `30 lakh. Since the borrower failed to pay back `30 lakh, the responsibility of paying the amount fell on Mukundan, “ said a Bank official. They also disclosed that Mukundan had agreed to repay the loan arrears by February 2021 itself.
Investigation has been ordered into how the `25 lakh loan availed by Mukundan shot up to `80 lakh and why he was not given the ‘breathing space’ to pay back the loan despite the assurances made by him to the Bank.
Though the manager of the Bank had informed the Cooperative Department authorities about the shady deals carried out by the director board members in 2016 itself, a CPI(M) leader who was also the minister in the previous LDF government (2016-2021) got the manager dismissed citing indiscipline and financial impropriety. Investigating officials told The Pioneer that the Bank was a conduit for money laundering. By Saturday morning, the probe agencies including police and cooperative department have found that the many cooperative banks in the State were actively engaged in money laundering and embezzlement to the tune of more than `10,000 crore.
Karunakaran Nambiar, all India general secretary of Sahakar Bharati told The Pioneer that Cooperative Banks in Kerala were being used for money laundering and hoarding of black money.
“Since provisions like Know Your Customer (KYC) were not applicable in these Cooperative Banks, they are ideal avenues for money laundering and violation of all financial regulations. Besides Banks, the cooperative sector in the State itself is enmeshed in financial embezzlement,” said Nambiar.
Nambiar also demanded a comprehensive probe by any of the central agencies into the functioning of the cooperative banks. It has also been disclosed that the relation of the former minister has been diverting the Bank funds to buy real estate and construct holiday resorts in the Western Ghats.