Kerala Coop bank fraud: High Court allows only emergency payments

The Kerala High Court on Tuesday directed the scam-tainted coop bank to stop all payments barring the emergency ones and asked the Pinarayi Vijayan government to prepare a roadmap aimed at paying back the depositors.

The Karuvannur Cooperative bank fraud in Thrissur district has now become the cynosure of all eyes and even after an year, not much headway has been made in the police probe.

After hearing multiple petitions demanding it's intervention, the court posted the case for August 10 and asked the government for its plan of action.

The CPI-M backed bank informed the court that at present they have only Rs 60 lakh in cash, while they have assets which can be sold and depositors can be paid.

It also pointed out that of the total deposit of Rs 284 crore, a sum of Rs 142 crore has matured.

This fresh development comes a few days after Leader of Opposition V.D.Satheesan wrote to Vijayan demanding a CBI probe into the bank fraud. "Those who had good connections in the party were able to get back their deposits, while a majority of the hapless depositors are running from pillar to post to get back their money," he alleged.

It's just not the employees alone that are involved, he aded.

For the past few days allegations of the role of top CPI-M leaders from the district in the scam are being aired.

On Tuesday, Satheesan told the media that Vijayan should immediately call an all-party meeting to discuss the issues of Cooperative banks as numerous banks in the cooperative sector are in dire straits.

"Something has to be done by Vijayan. At the moment all that's happening is nothing but rhetoric and false promises and hopes being given to the hapless people who have deposited their hard earned money in such banks. An all-party meeting has to be convened as we have few suggestions on how the cooperative sector can be salvaged, as this is the backbone of our rural economy," he said.

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