The newly appointed administrative committee of the Chorode Service Cooperative Bank here has placed under suspension four of its employees, including its secretary. This was after the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau registered a case against them for allegedly swindling Rs.37 lakh from the bank.
Previously, the Kerala government had dismissed the governing body of the bank and installed an administrative committee for carrying out day-to-day operations.
Those suspended were the secretary V. Dineshan, managers P.P. Prajith and A. Suresh, and Internal Auditor N.T. Shaji. Their anticipatory bails are pending before the High Court of Kerala. They are at large now.
Meanwhile, assistant secretary N.K. Babu has taken over as the new secretary of the bank.
New minutes book
The administrative committee led by its convener C. Soman had to open a new minutes book as the secretary went on leave and he had not handed over the existing minutes book to the office.
The suspension of the employees was the culmination of a struggle started by the slain Revolutionary Marxist Party (RMP) leader T.P. Chandrasekharan three years ago. He had given a complaint to the Cooperation Department regarding the alleged corruption in the bank.
Reacting to the development, the RMP leadership termed the suspension and the impending case against the accused as a punishment to those who had tried to frame Chandrasekharan in a false corruption case.
A section of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI -M] leaders had then alleged irregularities on the part of Chandrasekharan in the People’s Plan campaign of the Eramala grama panchayat several years ago.
At that time, the bank secretary had supported this allegation.
However, the RMP said this was to keep Chandrasekharan away from party conferences.
Their objective was to prevent him from becoming a member of the district committee of the CPI(M). Chandrasekharan was killed at Onchiyam on May 4, 2012.
