Top leaders of the CPI-M accused in the Karuvannur Cooperative Bank money laundering case appeared before the Special Court in Kochi under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and were granted bail. Former minister and MLA A.C. Moideen, MP K. Radhakrishnan, and former CPI-M Thrissur district secretary M.M. Varghese, among others, filed bail applications and appeared before the court as directed.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has implicated the Communist Party of India (Marxist) as the 68th accused in the case, but no representative from the party attended the court session. Consequently, the court instructed the Thrissur district secretary to appear on behalf of the party on July 21, along with 19 other accused who failed to show up on the scheduled date.
The court, having found prima facie evidence against the accused, decided that they should stand trial. The ED has named a total of 83 accused in two charge sheets, alleging that around Rs 180 crore was laundered through fake benami loans and financial irregularities at the Karuvannur Cooperative Bank. Assets worth Rs 128.82 crore, including properties linked to the CPI-M, have been attached by the central agency.
The accused, after receiving copies of the charge sheet, plan to file discharge petitions to be removed from the case before the trial begins. Radhakrishnan, upon securing bail, criticized the ED for targeting them as accused merely because of their association with the CPI-M.
