Kochi | The ED has issued fresh summons to Kerala CPI(M) MLA A C Moideen asking him to appear before it on September 4 for questioning in a money laundering case linked to an alleged Rs 150 crore bank fraud, official sources said Friday.
Moideen, 67, was first asked to depose before the investigating officer of the case on August 31 but he expressed his inability to come and said that he received the summons late. He was issued a fresh notice to appear before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) at its office here on Monday, they said.
The case relates to the alleged fraud in the CPI(M)-controlled Karuvannur Cooperative Bank.
The ED has been questioning some people involved in the case since it conducted raids at their premises last month, the sources said.
During his questioning, the ED is expected to confront Moideen with documents and records seized during these raids, statements of some people apart from recording the MLA's statement under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
The agency issued freeze orders against bank and fixed deposits worth Rs 28 lakh of the former Kerala minister for Cooperation and Industries and his wife, apart from the seizure of 36 properties valued at Rs 15 crore -- "proceeds of crime" in this case.
Moideen, who currently represents the Kunnamkulam constituency in the Kerala Assembly, had addressed the press after the raids concluded and said the action was "pre-planned," adding that he would cooperate with any investigation.
The ED had claimed its probe found that "on the instructions of certain persons, who were district-level leaders and committee members of a certain political party and governed the bank, loans were disbursed by the bank manager through the agent in cash to non-member benamis by mortgaging properties of poor members without their knowledge and laundered to the benefit of the accused".
"Many such benami loans were disbursed on the instructions of A C Moideen," it had alleged in a statement issued on August 23, a day after the raids were carried out.
Some of those whose premises were raided were identified as Kiran P P, Rahim C M, Shiju M K and Satheeshkumar P, according to the ED.
This case of alleged fraud, beginning in 2010, in the Thrissur-based Karuvannur Cooperative Bank triggered a political row in Kerala two years ago.
The money laundering case stems from 16 FIRs registered by the Kerala Police (Crime Branch) in Thrissur.
The ED had carried out similar raids in August last year at six locations, including a branch of the bank located in Irinjalakuda, Thrissur. It had attached assets worth Rs 30.70 crore of a commission agent of the bank, Bijoy A K.
After the Kerala Police registered the FIR in July 2021, the registrar in their audit found "diversions" of more than Rs 100 crore, the ED had said last year.
