The Income Tax department has frozen the account in the name of the Thrissur district committee of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] in a nationalised bank in the district on the charge that the account was not reflected in the annual returns filed by the party.
About ₹4.8 crore was available in the account when it was seized by the I-T department. A recent withdrawal of ₹1 crore from it had caught the attention of the I-T department. Officials had questioned M.M. Varghese, the Thrissur district secretary of the CPI(M), here on April 5 after searches carried out at the bank confirmed the withdrawal.
According to the I-T department, though several other accounts of the CPI(M) were reflected in the annual returns filed by the party, the account in the name of the Thrissur district committee was missing from it. Those responsible have to explain why they did not include it in the annual returns. The department is looking at the transactions made through the account. The party will also have to confirm the source of the funds available in the account, it said.
Mr. Varghese, who was questioned by I-T officials at the Kochi office of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on April 5, had denied the charges. He had appeared at the ED office as part of the investigation into the multi-crore Karuvannur Service Cooperative Bank loan scam.
The I-T department initiated the probe into the large cash withdrawal in view of the enhanced surveillance against the use of black money or unaccounted money in connection with the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
The CPI(M) State Secretariat condemned the action taken by the Income Tax department. In a statement, it stated that the party had been submitting its annual returns to the department and the Election Commission of India.
The bank account of the Thrissur district committee was frozen without prior notice. It was part of the political vengeance shown by the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Union government against its political opponents at the time of the Lok Sabha election. The decision to freeze the account was part of the Centre’s policy to unleash its attack on the Opposition parties and governments led by them, according to the release.
M.V Govindan, State secretary of the CPI(M), said that the party would take legal recourse against the I-T department’s action. The party had records to prove that it had submitted the returns duly. To claim that the details of the account had not been furnished was false and misleading, he said.
He said the party would highlight the use of central agencies by the BJP government at the Centre against the Opposition parties.
