CPI-M legislator Moideen, party jittery after 22-hour ED raid at his residence

The Kerala unit of CPI-M in general and particularly its legislator A.C. Moideen are jittery after a 22 hour Enforcement Directorate (ED) raid at his residence in Trissur district ended in the wee hours of Wednesday.

Moideen, who was also a former State Minister in the first Pinarayi Vijayan cabinet ( 2016-21), soon after the ED officials left his residence, said what happened was one with an agenda.

“They examined all papers and even though I have not been asked to appear again, they asked me to submit bank statements and passbooks which I did not have at the time they were here. Most of the time, the officials were engaged in discussions with themselves and used to ask questions to me. They were mostly asking questions not during the period I was a  Minister, but before that when I was the district secretary of the party,” said Moideen.

Moideen, his wife or daughter -- none of them -- were allowed to leave the house, until the ED officials left at 5 a.m on Wednesday morning.

Meanwhile, sources close to ED points out that they will soon issue a notice to Moideen to appear before them and may freeze a few fixed deposits of his.

Incidentally the 22 hour raid was in connection with the Karuvannur Cooperative bank fraud.

Soon after the scam surfaced a few years back, reports claimed of a close relation between those who ran the bank and Moideen, the Kunnamkulam MLA.

The fraud detected in the bank was in excess of Rs 200 crore, leaving many depositors in deep distress.

The ED registered cases against 18 people, including director board members and staff of the Cooperative bank.

Eight of them were sent to jail and a court order directed confiscation of their assets to recover the money, but the order was later stayed.

Veteran Congress Lok Sabha member and son of K. Karunakaran -- K. Muraleedharan, who lost his debut assembly by-election election while being a State Cabinet Minister in 2004 to Moideen, while reacting to the raid, stated the standard phrase of political opponents being haunted by central agencies can be said but it doesn’t absolve people to do what they like when they have power.

“We have been hearing for long about the scam in this particular bank and so we just can’t conclude that this raid is to hound political opponents,” said Muraleedharan.

Meanwhile, all eyes are on the CPI-M leadership which is yet to react on the ED raid at Moideen’s residence.