ED provisionally attached assets worth Rs.4.34 Crore in Cooperative Bank Fraud Case

The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) has provisionally attached assets worth Rs.4.34 Crore in the Pulpally Service Cooperative Bank case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002 on 10.11.2023.

The attached assets include real estate owned by K K Abraham, the then-president, the then-secretary, several Board members, and Sajeevan K T, a private individual.

The ED launched an inquiry based on a FIR filed by the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB), Wayanad, Kerala, against the President of Pulpally Service Cooperative Bank and the Head of the bank’s Loan Section under various sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.

Following that, the VACB in Wayanad filed a charge sheet against K K Abraham and nine others.

The ED investigation revealed that bank officials and members of its governing body sanctioned enhanced loans without the consent and knowledge of the loan applicants by secretly and illegally showing overvalued estimations of properties offered as collateral in the bank record, and the excess amount of loans sanctioned on the basis of overvaluation was given to Sajeevan Kollappallil (Private Person).

The applicants did not repay the loans, resulting in a total loss of Rs.5.62 crore to the Pulpally Service Cooperative Bank.

The proceeds of crime were put in the form of an inflated loan in Sajeevan Kollappallil’s bank account at Pulpally Service Cooperative Bank, Pulpally, and then withdrawn in cash and syphoned off. Earlier, the ED detained Sajeevan Kollapallil and K K Abraham, who are now in judicial custody.

Further investigation is under progress.