Kochi (Kerala): The Enforcement Directorate (ED), which is currently investigating the Karuvannur bank scam, on Monday interrogated CPI(M) state committee member, M K Kannan, in connection with the case. Kannan, state vice president of the Kerala Bank, is also the president of the Thrissur Service Cooperative Bank.
He reached the ED office here in the morning and was interrogated for over seven hours. Addressing the media after the interrogation, the CPI(M) leader alleged that the agency officials mentally tortured him and a north Indian officer who spoke in Hindi threatened him. "They were mentally torturing. They wanted to mentally depress me. There was one deputy director who was threatening in Hindi," Kannan told the media.
He was asked to appear before the agency again on September 29. The ED had earlier arrested Kiran P P and Satheesh Kumar P in connection with the alleged issuance of benami loans from the Karuvannur bank.
On September 11, CPI(M) leader and MLA, A C Moideen, was interrogated for over nine hours by the ED in connection with its probe into the Rs 150 crore Karuvannur Cooperative bank scam which triggered a political row in Kerala recently. The case relates to the alleged fraud in the CPI(M)-controlled Karuvannur Cooperative Bank.
The ED has been questioning some people involved in the case since it conducted raids at their premises last month. The agency had recorded the MLA's statement under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The ED had earlier issued freeze orders against bank and fixed deposits worth Rs 28 lakh of Moideen, the former Kerala Minister for Cooperation and Industries and his wife, apart from the seizure of 36 properties valued at Rs 15 crore -- "proceeds of crime" in this case.
The ED had claimed its probe 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 laundered to the benefit of the accused". "Many such benami loans were disbursed on the instructions of A C Moideen," it had alleged in a statement issued on August 23, a day after the raids were carried out.
Apart from Kumar and Kiran, the premises of Rahim C M and Shiju M K, were also raided, according to the agency. They claimed that Kumar was the kingpin.
