A people’s action council is preparing to intensify agitation raising a slew of demands including the arrest of all the accused in the alleged loan fraud at the Pulpally Primary Service Cooperative Bank in Wayanad.
Speaking to reporters here on Thursday, V.S. Chacko and C.U. Jayaprakash, president and secretary of the council respectively, said some leaders in the Congress and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) had joined hands to protect the accused, and that police officers were acting on the instructions of party leaders.
Vigilance officials had delayed submitting the crime report and arresting the accused in the case registered on a complaint by one Daniel and his wife, reportedly victims of the fraud, Mr. Chacko said.
The Vigilance inquiry into the fraud was completed in 2021, but the crime report was filed only a few weeks ago after the death of Rajendran Nair, a farmer, he said.
Moreover, there was laxity on the part of officials when it came to arresting the accused as the couple had filed a petition on September 22, 2022.
However, the police arrested the accused only after the death of the farmer on May 29, he alleged.
‘Several involved’
Though several persons had been involved in the scam, the police had arrested only the former president of the bank and former Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee general secretary K.K. Abraham, and K.T. Ramadevi, former secretary of the bank, Mr. Jayaprakash said.
The council had submitted a memorandum to the District Collector demanding waiver of loan of the deceased farmer, provision of a job to a kin of the deceased in the bank and payment of a compensation of ₹25 lakh to the farmer’s kin, he said.
The organisation will stage a sit-in in front of the Pulpally police station on Saturday raising the demands. If the authorities failed to address the demands, the organisation would intensify agitation, they added.
