PALAKKAD: Even as the Karuvannur cooperative bank is hogging the headlines for the wrong reasons, a fraud of a similar nature but of a lesser scale has been reported in the Congress-ruled Kuzhalmannam Block Rural Credit Cooperative Society functioning from Kannannur in Kannadi panchayat.
The registrar of cooperative societies had on April 8 directed the Palakkad joint registrar to initiate criminal proceedings against those responsible for the fraud and to submit an action taken report. But even after two months, no action seems to have been taken. Many depositors are said to have complained that even after three years, they have received neither their money after maturity nor its interest. Strangely, no action has been taken in this connection till date.
The assistant registrar of cooperative societies who investigated the complaints of depositors detected fraud to the tune of Rs 4.85 crore. The registrar had recommended the amount be recouped from the former members of the administrative committee of the society.
The irregularities detected in the inspections include diversion of loans, non-refund of fixed deposits after the maturity period, disbursal of loans without adequate collateral security and the renewal of loans without the knowledge of the loanees.
Based on the complaints, the administrative committee headed by the president of the society, N Vineesh, who is a former mandalam president of the Congress, was disbanded in January this year.