CPI-M legislator under ED scanner to take legal recourse

SENIOR CPI-M legislator and former Kerala Cooperation Minister A.C. Moideen, who is under the Enforcement Directorate (ED) scanner in the Karuvannur Service Cooperative Bank loan scam, on Tuesday said the agency is hounding him for political reasons and hence he will be taking legal steps, online news sites report quoting IANS.

On Monday, news surfaced that the adjudicating authority in the Union Finance Ministry rejected his challenge to the freezing and seizure of Rs 40 lakh in six bank accounts of him and his wife.

But Moideen said that, to the best of his knowledge, all the ED has done is freezing his bank accounts which have Rs 28 lakh in them and has not attached any of his assets.

"The ED is hounding me for political reasons as they have been doing in other states. The ED is targeting the CPI-M and the properly running Cooperative institutions. Once I get all the papers, I will take legal steps against this by the ED," he said.

The ED, for the past eight months, has been probing the around Rs 300 crore that was siphoned off from Karuvannur Service Cooperative Bank Ltd in Trissur. As part of the probe, the ED first raided Moideen’s house and later he appeared before the ED at their office. When he was served another notice, he did not turn up.

The ED investigation has revealed that on the instruction of certain persons, who were district-level leaders and committee members of a certain political party, loans were disbursed by the bank manager through the agent in cash to "non-member benamis" by mortgaging properties of not-so-well-off individuals without their knowledge.

It has come to light that many 'benami loans' were allegedly disbursed on the instructions of Moideen. All eyes are on the Congress-led opposition which is expected to take up this issue during the ongoing assembly session.