CPM made board members scapegoats, alleges CPI duo

Kochi: Two CPI leaders, who were director board members of Karuvannur cooperative bank, told the media on Sunday that CPM leaders and officials who worked for them made the director board members scapegoats. Lalithan and Sugathan told the media that they were ‘unaware of the shady deals’ at the bank and had no connection to the scam.Lalithan alleged that shady deals happened in the bank without their knowledge and big loans never came up before the board meeting before the same were passed. They said that loans of smaller amounts were passed following norms with the recommendation of the director board members and bigger loans were passed without such recommendation and it was then cleverly added to the minutes book. “We were being betrayed. In reality, we have no part in this,” added Lalithan.Lalithan claimed that the ED enquiry was not politically motivated and that it was on the right track. He said that ED investigation showed that those with CPM had a role in the scam. They alleged that CPM leaders ignored their complaints connected to the bank. The duo said that as CPI representatives they had less freedom at the bank and were unable to conduct many enquiries.The duo said that when they got an audit report that they realized the shady deals at the bank. “We then told the president to suspend Biju Karim and the secretary or all of us may resign. The president then said that it was the party who appointed him and without the party saying he cannot do anything,” alleged Sugathan.He said that they didn’t get any help from CPI either. He added that even his wife went to CPI leaders, including Kanam Rajendran, seeking their help, but nobody helped. The duo claimed that they realized that there were illegal loans without proper collaterals only when they got the enquiry report. They added that the staff knew about the money being given away, but they didn’t inform the director board members.ED, in its remand report against the two accused, had submitted that deposits of the public at Karuvannur Service Cooperative Bank were illegally diverted as loans by violating rules and due to this illegal diversion, depositors could not withdraw their hard-earned money at the time of utmost necessity which resulted in suicide of depositors. The agency is also looking into reports of similar scams in other banks as well, sources said.