ED Raids Nemom Cooperative Bank and Officials’ Homes Over Rs 100 Crore Financial Irregularities

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has conducted raids at the Nemom Service Cooperative Bank in Thiruvananthapuram and the residences of its governing body members, following allegations of financial irregularities amounting to approximately one hundred crore rupees. The ED team, which is based in Kochi, initiated the searches after a long period of protests by an association of depositors in the region regarding the alleged fraud.

In connection with the irregularities, R Pradeep Kumar, a former CPM Area Committee member, and former bank secretaries A R Rajendra Kumar and S Balachandran Nair, had previously been arrested.

A government-appointed committee had identified significant discrepancies, noting that while loans worth Rs 34.26 crore were outstanding, the bank held collateral documents for only Rs 15.55 crore. Similarly, in the monthly deposit scheme, out of a total receivable of Rs 10.73 crore, documents were available for only Rs 4.83 crore. The committee’s findings indicated that former secretaries S Balachandran Nair was responsible for irregularities totaling Rs 20.76 crore, A R Rajendra Kumar for Rs 31.63 crore, and S S Sandhya for Rs 10.41 crore. Reports also revealed the extent of losses incurred by individual governing body members over the past decade.

Several governing body members were found to have caused losses of around Rs 3 crore each to the bank. The significant financial burden stemmed from practices such as offering excessively high-interest rates on fixed deposits to attract more funds and approving loans to favored individuals without proper documentation. Recent evidence collection by the Crime Branch, conducted with Rajendra at the bank, reportedly yielded crucial information regarding the ongoing investigation.