In the latest development of the Rs 100-crore Karuvannur Cooperative Bank fraud that rocked Kerala, the Crime Branch team investigating the case arrested the key accused on Monday, August 9. TR Sunilkumar, who worked as a secretary of the bank for 21 years, was reportedly taken into custody from Thrissur’s Parappur Road on Monday evening.
Sunilkumar went into hiding after the bank fraud came to light in July and the case was registered. The Board members of the bank are local CPI(M) leaders, which added to the list of controversies that the party is embroiled in. The fraud involved fake signatures, benami transactions and remortgaged properties, along with several customers receiving collection notices for amounts that they never borrowed. When the scam came to light, the CPI(M) had expelled four leaders who were allegedly involved in the fraud, while disciplinary action was taken against others.
While Sunilkumar has been nabbed, the police have extended their search for the other accused to states Andhra Pradesh, Tamil nadu and Karnataka, the Times of India reported. Of the accused, three have filed anticipatory bail applications at the principal district court in Thrissur-- M Biju Kareem, the former bank manager, bank accountant CK Jilse and Reji Anilkumar, who was an accountant of the supermarket run by the bank. The three filed their bail application soon after the crime was exposed in July. The prosecution was asked to file their response when the bail application had come up for hearing on July 21. The prosecution filed responses on August 6 and the bail applications have been reserved for orders for August 10.
The Karuvannur Bank fraud was exposed when 63-year-old TM Mukundan, a former member of the Porathissery panchayat, died by suicide after receving a foreclosure notice for recovering amounts that he never borrowed. However, the fraud first came to light in 2019, when the joint registrar of cooperation (Thrissur) ordered a probe. However, though the probe was completed in October 2020, no action was taken.