The Income Tax department on Tuesday, April 30, seized Rs 1 crore from the Communist Party of India (Marxist)’s Thrissur District Committee in Kerala. The money was seized when it was brought to be deposited back at the Bank of India branch in Thrissur, where the party holds an account, media reports said. The account was earlier frozen by the Income Tax Department.
According to reports, CPI(M) Thrissur District Secretary MM Varghese had come to deposit the unspent money which the party had withdrawn earlier. The I-T department recorded the statement of MM Varghese, and asked the party to submit the source of the money. Speaking to the media, Varghese said the I-T department’s action was part of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) investigation.
I-T officials also asked to verify the serial numbers to make sure it had the same currency notes that were withdrawn, reports said.
Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections in Kerala, the I-T Department, in the first week of April, had frozen the bank account in the name of the Thrissur district committee of CPI(M) on grounds that it was not reflected in the annual returns filed by the party. As per reports, around Rs 4.8 crore was there in the account. The withdrawal of Rs 1 crore was made before the bank account was frozen.
In connection with the withdrawal of Rs 1 crore on April 5, the I-T department questioned M M Varghese and collected his statement at the Kochi office of the Enforcement Directorate.
Varghese was supposed to appear before ED On May 1 pertaining to the Karuvannur Bank scam case, a multi-crore loan scam at Karuvannur Service Cooperative Bank in Thrissur. Although he informed ED that he cannot appear before it as it was May Day, the ED refused it.
The Karuvannur bank scam came to light in 2021 with the suicide of a former panchayat member TM Mukundan. He was asked to repay a loan of Rs 50 lakh by the bank, which he had never taken. The Crime Branch took over the investigation from the local police in July 2021. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) started an investigation under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act into the scam which is probing the bank fraud estimated to be above Rs 300 crore.