: The Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam (SNDP) leadership had illegally diverted public funds intended to alleviate the living conditions of indigent backward class families to construct its office buildings and do good to nominees of the 113-year-old social organisation’s local apparatchiks, according to the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB).
In its FIR naming SNDP Yogam general secretary Vellappally Natesan as the prime suspect in the Rs.15.75 crore suspected micro-credit financial fraud, the VACB said the organisation’s local office-bearers had violated loan disbursal norms and falsified documents to siphon off minor loans meant for the poor.
The loans, drawn from the Kerala State Backward Classes Development Corporation, were distributed to SNDP-union backed self help groups (SHG), many of which existed only on paper.
Tellingly, the names of the members of a Kottayam-based self-help group dubiously figured in two other SHGs in Cherthala. Nearly Rs.1 crore was disbursed to the “three groups.” The utilisation certificates produced subsequently were “found” to be false.
The FIR squarely blamed two successive managing directors of the KSBCDC for the “fraud.” They were M. Najeeb and his successor, Dilip Kumar.
The Vigilance said they continued to release loans to the SNDP despite overwhelming evidence of loan mismanagement and public fund fraud. An agency appointed at the Corporation’s behest had pointed out to them that the SNDP had violated micro-credit norms while disbursing funds.
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) and the Centre for Management Development (CMD) had also highlighted the irregularities in loan distribution and utilisation. The KSBCDC had also allocated funds to the SNDP by considering it an NGO, when it was legally not one. The Vigilance also accused the SNDP office-bearers of charging a higher interest from micro-credit beneficiaries than allowed by the government.
The FIR stated that the suspects had misused their official positions and accorded undue pecuniary benefit to the other suspects, including SNDP Union president M.N. Soman and SNDP Yogam micro-credit scheme State coordinator K. K. Mahesan.
The Vigilance has accused the suspects of conspiracy, cheating, forgery, corruption and using fake documents as genuine ones.
