Rs 42.72 swindling case: Accused couple expelled from party a week ago, says CPM
Thalayolaparambu: Police questioned more people in the case where Rs 42.72 lakh was swindled from a private financial firm here. The people questioned include relatives of the two main accused, Krishnendu (27) and Devi Prajith, as well as the people into whose accounts the swindled money was deposited.
Amidst fingers being pointed out at the party due to the first accused and her husband being associated with the party, CPM said that Krishnendu (DYFI joint zonal secretary) and her husband Ananthu Unni (29) were expelled from the party a week before the scam came to light. CPM District Secretary AV Rusell said that the police have not yet registered a case against Ananthu, a party local committee member.
The police have collected more evidence by examining the register and other documents at the financial firm where Krishnendu and Devi worked and extorted money.
Meanwhile, Krishnendu, Ananthu and Devi are still at large. The police said that their mobile phones were switched off.
Since April 2023, the duo has not recorded the money paid by people on redeeming pawned gold to the company’s account. In this manner, Rs 42.72 lakh was extorted from 19 people. For this, irregularities were done on 55 gold mortgages. The fraud came to light during the audit at the firm when it was unveiled that a gold mortgage loan was availed 13 times in the names of Krishnendu, Ananthu and his father Unni without pledging any gold collateral.
Krishnendu transferred money into her own account and into accounts held by her relatives. She also damaged the CCTV cameras and destroyed evidence to ensure that the owner would not be aware of these deeds.
CPM’s actions of expelling the couple before the fraud came to light suggests that the party was aware of the irregular financial dealings they were involved in. Although expelled from the party, no police complaint was registered. Earlier too, the party had intervened to resolve another of Ananthu’s financial cases.