Thrissur: The revenue recovery proceedings in the Karuvannur cooperative society fraud have raised the eyebrows of many. While there are over 100 discrepancy cases pending with the department of cooperation, the revenue recovery in the Karuvannur case is allegedly a hasty move.

Only four bank employees have been named in the scam amounting to Rs 125 crore alongside the governing council members of the bank. The order for revenue recovery has been issued amidst rising criticism against officials for allegedly protecting political bigwigs involved in the scam.

Sugathan, a night security guard, has to pay back Rs 8.34 crore for his alleged role in the Karuvannur bank scam. Sugathan, who has not even passed class 8 and does not even possess a home or land, is an accused and has been fined by the department of cooperation since he was a director of the Karuvannur bank. On the other hand, AK Bijoy, who has been accused by the department of syphoning off a mammoth amount of around Rs 37 crore from the bank, has been asked to pay back only a mere Rs 16.77 lakh for his role in the scam. Such differences were spotted in the documents handed over to the revenue department by the department of cooperation.

The department of cooperation received constant complaints about the Karuvannur bank scam which had happened in the time period between 2011-2019. It is widely alleged that the officials of the department of cooperation were controlled by corrupt politicians and the government officials were duly rewarded for remaining silent in the incident. 

Ramakrishnan, the primary accused in the case, had first issued a statement against CPM district secretariat member CK Chandran for instigating the fraud. Chandran was suspended from the party for a year on July 31, 2021. His membership still remains suspended. Ramakrishnan is the father of former Karuvannur bank secretary TR Sunilkumar. Ramakrishnanan had later pointed fingers at former minister AC Moideen. Unlike in the case of Chandran, CPM did not act on it.