New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate Tuesday said it has attached assets worth more than Rs 1 crore linked to expelled Kerala CPI leader N Bhasurangan and his family members in a money laundering case.
The case pertains to alleged irregularities in the Kandala Service Co-operative Bank in Trivandrum’s Maranalloor during Bhasurangan’s tenure as its president.
The politician and his son Akhiljith J B were arrested by the central agency in November last year in Kochi on charges of irregularities in loans given out by the lender.
In a statement, the ED said “several irregularities” were found in the management of the bank and alleged misappropriation of funds worth Rs 57 crore was also detected.
“The bank suffered massive asset impairment due to its mismanagement and irregularities,” it said.
Bhasurangan, according to the agency, was the overall in-charge of the bank as president, who played a “key role” in sanctioning various unauthorised loans running into several crores to himself and his relatives by remortgaging the same property multiple times as collateral security.
The ED had conducted raids in this case last year after which Bhasurangan, a local CPI leader, was expelled from the Left party’s primary membership.
A provisional order under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) has been issued to attach the assets worth Rs 1.02 crore, the statement said.
The agency had said last year that the bank had not initiated any recovery proceedings in respect of the overdue loans availed by these family members and relatives of Bhasurangan.
PTI