ED raid at my house pre-planned: Kerala's Moideen on bank fraud case

Senior CPI (M) leader A C Moideen MLA on Wednesday termed the raid carried out by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) at his residence here as "pre-planned," and said he would co-operate with any investigation.

The central agency conducted a 22-hour-long search at his house in connection with the money laundering probe linked to an alleged Rs 100 crore fraud in the party-controlled Karuvannur cooperative bank here.

The search began on Tuesday morning, and continued till early today. The ED sleuths left at 5.15 am.

Addressing the media, the former minister of Cooperation and Industries said the investigators verified his bank account details and that of his family members besides checking other property documents kept at the residence.

"The ED officials searched the entire premises. My bank account details, as well as those of my wife and daughter, were examined. The property documents kept at the house were also examined," he said.

He said he was told by the investigators that one person had given a statement that he had intervened in changing the criteria to grant loans irregularly at the Karuvannur cooperative bank.

"In a normal case, the investigators would ask the respective person about the charge levelled against him. But, nothing like that happened. So, I feel that the raid was a pre-planned move," he said.

The former minister, however, made it clear that he would co-operate with any kind of investigation.

Moideen, 67, is a senior CPI(M) leader and he represents the Kunnamkulam constituency in the state Assembly.

The central agency covered about half-a-dozen premises in the southern state as part of the fresh searches conducted under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) on Tuesday, official sources said.

Raids were carried out by the ED in connection with this case in August last year also.

The residence of Moideen and those linked to him are being searched for evidence of gathering details of "benami" assets, they said.

The alleged fraud in the Thrissur-based CPI(M)-controlled bank triggered a political row in Kerala two years ago.

The ED's preliminary probe found that "on the instructions of CPI(M) district level leaders and committee members who governed the bank, loans were allegedly disbursed in cash to non-member benamis by mortgaging properties of poor members without their knowledge and laundered to the benefit of the accused".

The agency suspects many such "benami" loans were disbursed allegedly on the instructions of Moideen.

The Karuvannur service cooperative bank was also under scrutiny of the Registrar of cooperative societies in Thiruvananthapuram.

After the FIR was registered in July 2021 by the Kerala police, the Registrar in their audit found "diversion" of more than Rs 100 crore, the ED had said.

The Kerala government, in August 2021, suspended 16 officials for their alleged lapses in detecting this alleged fraud at the bank.