After AAP, is ED going to make another political party an accused? Know the whole matter

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED), which is investigating money laundering in Karuvannur Service Cooperative Bank, has attached an alleged plot of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M) in Kerala and bank deposits worth Rs 73 lakh. The ED team, which is investigating allegations of crores of rupees of embezzlement in the CPI(M)-controlled Karuvannur Cooperative Bank in Thrissur, is ready to make the party an accused in this case. Just last month, the ED had named the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) as an accused in the Delhi liquor scam case. This was the first time that a political party was made an accused by the ED in any case. At the same time, the CPI(M) has denied the allegations of irregularities and money laundering and has also said that it will strongly oppose any move of the investigating agency to make it an accused.

Was the plot meant for a CPI(M) office
The CPI(M) has denied the ED’s allegations and said it will fight legally and politically any move by the investigating agency to make it an accused in the case related to the alleged multi-crore Karuvannur bank scam. The party’s state secretary M V Govindan alleged that the ED was trying to make opposition parties and their leaders accused in various cases for political reasons. The ED believes that the plot it has seized was meant for the CPI(M) party office and was purchased with alleged bribes received from borrowers or beneficiaries of loans sanctioned by the Karuvannur Service Cooperative Bank.

Allegations of embezzlement of Rs 300 crore
In the Thrissur case, it is alleged that about Rs 300 crore was embezzled by bank employees and local officials of the ruling CPI (M) were involved in the scam. Karuvannur is one of the cooperative banks that has been accused of financial fraud in the last three years. The entire matter is being investigated by the ED. The bank had refused to return the money of several thousand customers. This scam shook the CPI (M) government of the state in 2021. The Kerala government used to pat its back for having a strong cooperative bank, now the same bank is accused of scam.

Serious allegations against the minister
The ED had said last year that the bank had disbursed benami loans at the behest of CPI(M) MLA and former minister A C Moideen. In August 2023, the ED raided Moideen’s house in Thrissur. Moideen served as the minister of the local self-government department from 2016 to 2021 during the LDF regime. Earlier he/she served as the district secretary of the CPI(M) in Thrissur. The bank had 12,000 depositors and some had allegedly committed suicide when the bank refused to return their money.