Recovery notices terrify mortgage fraud victims in Karuvannur financial institution

Express News Service
KARUVANNUR(THRISSUR): The hearth on the funeral pyre of T M Mukundan has died down, however the embers of despair and ache are nonetheless alive within the minds of his pricey ones. Then there’s the specter of income restoration. Chairs loosely organized underneath a tarpaulin sheet greet you on the home, however Prabhavathi — Mukundan’s spouse — is just too unhappy to welcome any customer. She stares at you, takes a deep breath and breaks into tears.

Mukundan, the block secretary of Congress and former standing committee chairman of Porathissery panchayat, hanged to loss of life on July 22. Local residents had seen him visiting the Karuvannur Cooperative Bank the day earlier than. He was determined after receiving a income restoration discover demanding to pay Rs 80 lakh as mortgage arrears. Mukundan had taken a mortgage of solely Rs 30 lakh.

Mukundan’s son Dheeraj, 27, who works as a machine operator in Sharjah and returned on listening to his father’s loss of life, says their household by no means wanted such a hefty mortgage. “My sister was married off in 2014, but the retirement benefits of my father who worked as an office assistant at Wadakkancherry Vyasa College were enough to meet that expense,” he stated.

A look at their 100-year-old ancestral home proved his level. It has not been renovated. They have 16 cents of land, which is price Rs 45 lakh. “Will any bank issue a loan double the value of the land?,” asks Dheeraj. The mortgage fraud reported on the financial institution is getting larger and what the joint registrar has revealed after the probe is only a fragment of a deeper malaise, say native residents. 

The mortgage defaulters should not wealthy. The financial institution has defrauded farmers, distributors and day by day wagers. Many of them by no means utilized or availed of loans and the restoration notices reminding of colossal loans terrify them. If the federal government fails to deal with their woes, Karuvannur could witness extra suicides. 

Lottery ticket vendor Sadanandan, spouse Jaya and son Sumesh in entrance of their home at Karuvannur. The household had availed a mortgage of C10 lakh from the Karuvannur Cooperative financial institution in 2012 for which they’ve obtained a restoration discover of C39.04 lakh | Albin Mathew

Cheated by financial institution, many discover life at a crossroads

At Pullathara in Karalam village, Sadanandan, a handicapped lottery ticket vendor, stares at a income restoration discover of Rs 39 lakh and says his household, together with spouse Jaya and son Sumesh, has no different manner however to comply with in Mukundan’s footsteps. “We had taken a loan of Rs 10 lakh in 2012 to purchase 10 cents of land. We had been paying Rs 21,000 as EMI for years. Four years ago we defaulted on the payment. In 2019, we got a revenue recovery notice of Rs 39 lakh. We used to pay the EMI to director board member Salini Satish who recently went abroad. The bank says we have not paid the EMI. We don’t know what to do,” says Sadanandan.

Sai Lakshmi of Karuvannur, who owns 13 cents of land, had utilized for a mortgage of Rs 10 lakh two years in the past. After six months, she acquired a discover asking to pay Rs 3 crore. She didn’t avail of a single penny as mortgage however the financial institution authorities have sanctioned Rs 50 lakh every in opposition to the names of six. Sai Lakshmi and her husband Harikumar are afraid to talk about their ordeal. Raju of Mutrathilparambil, a van driver has obtained a discover to repay a Rs 50-lakh mortgage he by no means utilized for. Anju Paul from Irinjalakuda has misplaced Rs 10 lakh from her account whereas C V Surendran has misplaced Rs 7 lakh put in a joint account. The checklist goes on.

“The members are queuing up in front of the bank every day to withdraw their deposit, but it pays only Rs 10,000 to a depositor a week. People throng outside the bank from 2am to take token but only 150 are distributed daily,” stated Paul, who runs a tea store close to the financial institution head quarters.

Mukundan’s son Deeraj in entrance of his father’s funeral pyre

The Crime Branch crew probing the fraud has booked a case in opposition to the financial institution’s former secretary T R Sunil Kumar, former supervisor M Okay Biju, former senior accountant C Okay Jilse, fee brokers Kiran and A Okay Bijoy, and Reji Anilkumar, an accountant on the bankrun grocery store. The fraud has taken place with the information of financial institution supervisor Okay Okay Divakaran and CPM space committee member V M Manoj, who was in control of the occasion’s sub-committee that seemed into the affairs of the financial institution, stated Suresh M V, the whistle blower who was dismissed from the financial institution on August 20, 2018.

Suresh was working because the manager-in-charge on the Civil Station department and had 20 years of expertise. He was a celebration member since 1988 and had served as panchayat secretary of the DYFI and an area committee member of CPM.

“In 2003, the bank had taken the distribution of Rubco mattress in Thrissur and Ernakulam districts and received good returns, thanks to the 12% commission. The following year, the bank appointed a commission agent who was given 8% commission. I raised this issue in the party sub-committee and gave a written complaint to district secretary Baby John in 2005,” stated Suresh.

According to him, a couple of workers with the assist of director board members had been sanctioning a number of loans utilizing the paperwork submitted by financial institution members. The loans have been sanctioned to fictitious individuals and deposited in actual property enterprise. Some of the staff have constructed resorts in Idukki district, stated Suresh.

“The CPM had deputed a two-member commission to probe the allegations, but the report did not see the light of the day. From 2010, there have been allegations of loan fraud. In 2019, a party commission led by former MP P K Biju and district secretariat member Shajahan probed the allegations. The panel had found substance in the allegations, but the party failed to take action. The Crime Branch should investigate the financial dealings of the bank employees and the director board members who controlled the bank during the past 10 years,” he stated.

Attender, peon amongst admins of financial institution softwareT’Puram: Major loopholes within the banking software program utilized by Karuvannur service cooperative financial institution got here to the help of the cartel of workers who had dedicated a mortgage fraud price I300 crore through the years. Investigators suspect that the loopholes within the software program and negligence in software program safety have been purposeful acts on a part of the senior workers for facilitating unlawful offers. B Sreejan experiences.