The Kerala High Court on Wednesday refused to order a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the ₹100-crore Karuvannur Service Co-operative Bank scam [Suresh MV v State of Kerala & ors].Justice PV Kunhikrishnan noted that the State police has filed regular status reports and multiple charge sheets in the case.The investigation has progressed considerably and final reports are pending before the trial courts, the Court noted.Hence, it disposed of a petition seeking CBI probe into the matter.However, the judge made it clear that the investigating officer must ensure that the real culprits are brought before the court of law."This writ petition need not be retained here indefinitely. I make it clear that the investigating officer will do the needful to see that the real culprits are before the Court of law for trial. With above observations this writ petition is disposed of," the Court said..The petition was filed by Suresh MV, a former employee of the bank, seeking a CBI probe into the ₹100 crore scam, alleging inefficiency, delay, and political interference in the ongoing police investigation.He claimed that the fraud involved siphoning of funds from customer bank accounts through benami loans (a transaction or property held in the name of one person but actually owned by another) and forged documents, with the involvement of politically influential persons.Dissatisfied over the investigation conducted by the police, Suresh alleged that the probe was influenced by political and external pressures and had not been completed even years after the crime was registered at the Irinjalakuda Police Station in 2021.On April 11, 2025, the Court passed a detailed order directing the police to investigate the role of all accused named by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in its Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR).Additionally, the investigating officer was directed to collect the ECIR and relevant affidavit from the ED's standing counsel, with a warning that the officer should not come under any political or bureaucratic pressure while investigating the matter..When the matter was taken up for final hearing, the public prosecutor informed the Court that in addition to the main case, 21 related cases have also been registered by the police, with two split charges filed in the main case.10 out of the 21 other cases have already been chargesheeted and investigation in the remaining 11 was nearly complete, with forensic reports awaited..After considering the submissions, the Court noted that regular status reports were being filed by the investigating officer with respect to the ongoing investigation.Hence, there was no need for the Court to assess the correctness of the investigation at the present stage, by invoking it's powers under Article 226 of the Constitution, when final reports were already pending before trial courts."I'm of the considered opinion that this Court need not look into the correctness of the investigation invoking the powers under Article 226. Admittedly the final reports are pending before the jurisdictional courts and if the petitioners have any grievances they can approach the jurisdictional courts, if the law permits for the same," the Court added.The writ petition was accordingly disposed of with liberty to the petitioner to approach the jurisdictional courts for any other grievances..The petitioner was represented by advocate SS Aravind.Additional Public Prosecutor P Narayanan appeared for the State.Enforcement Directorate was represented by it's standing counsel Jayasankar V Nair..[Read Live Coverage]
