The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has named the Kerala's ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] as accused in the Karuvannur Co-operative Bank Scam case. .The central agency has also named various CPI(M) leaders including Member of Parliament K Radhakrishnan as accused.The scam involves misappropriation of over ₹300 crore from various customer accounts, where money was siphoned off through benami loans (a transaction or property held in the name of one person but actually owned by another) and forged documents..This is not the first time that the ED has named a political party as accused in one of its investigations. A year ago, in May 2024, it named the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) along with then Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejrival, as accused in the Delhi Excise Policy case. In that case, while rejecting a plea filed by Kejriwal challenging his arrest in the case, the Delhi High Court had ruled that Section 70 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA), which brings a company under the ambit of the anti-money laundering law, will include a political party as well.Delhi High Court judge Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma had reasoned that the definition of ‘political party’ as per Section 2(f) of the Representation of the People Act (RP Act) is an ‘association or body of individuals’ and as per Explanation-1 of Section 70 of PMLA, a ‘company’ also means an ‘association of individuals’.Appeal against the same is pending before the Supreme Court..Debriefed: Can a political party be made an accused in a money laundering case?.The Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) in the Karuvannur Bank Scam case was registered based on a first information report (FIR) registered by Irinjalakuda Police.According to the ED's chargesheet, an investigation conducted by the Joint Registrar of Cooperative Societies of Thrissur revealed serious lapses, primarily in granting several loans to non-members of the bank and in issuing memberships at fake addresses without properly securing collateral.Regarding the addition of CPI(M), the charge sheet stated that according to information given by the then Manager and Secretary of the Bank, the disbursement of benami loans was done as per the instructions of CPI(M) District Committee members who controlled the Bank.A probe into some money trails allegedly revealed that money from illegally granted loans was utilised by various local and district committees of CPI(M).The ED has contended that this is clearly utilisation of the proceeds of crime generated out of the scheduled offence, which amounts to money laundering under PMLA."From the investigation and the evidences gathered it is clearly established that the accused persons committed the offence of money laundering as defined u/s. 3 of PMLA and they are liable to be prosecuted and punished u/s. 4 of PMLA and the attached properties involved in the money laundering are liable to be confiscated in terms of Section 8(5) of PMLA," the chargesheet reads.
