Seemingly piqued by the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) sweeping, intrusive and high-profile inquiries into the party-controlled Karuvannur Service Cooperative Bank scam case, the CPI(M) State secretariat on Friday issued a rallying cry to resist what it termed the BJP-led Central government’s gambit to destroy the State’s mammoth and welfare-centric cooperative sector to advantage greedy private corporates.
The CPI(M) ‘s call to action opened a new battlefront against the ED and marked a new low in the already fraught Centre-State relations. Kerala has 16,256 cooperative societies, including 4,148 low-interest credit societies. The institutions are central, almost at a microcosmic level, to the lives of lakhs of ordinary cooperative society members. The beneficiaries range from dairy and rubber farmers to coir and cashew workers to weavers and small family-run enterprises. The CPI(M) hopes to use the segment’s considerable social and political heft to put the ED and the Central government on the defence.
Addressing mediapersons after a crucial State secretariat meeting, CPI(M) State secretary M.V. Govindan accused the ED of using coercion, threats and the third degree to intimidate witnesses into testifying against two top CPI(M) leaders, A.C.Moideen, MLA, and P.K.Biju, ex-MP.
“The ED beat CPI(M) councillor A. R. Aravindakshan and threatened to thwart his daughter’s betrothal if he did not implicate the CPI(M) leaders,” Mr. Govindan said.
“They showed Mr. Aravindakshan a torture room and said he would see the light of the day only if he testified that he witnessed Mr. Moideen carting around sacks full of unaccounted money. His tormentors included officials from North India. Mr. Aravindakshan was treated for injuries and trauma later. The State police have recorded his statement and analysed his medical record. They were actively pursuing Mr. Aravindakshan’s complaint against the ED officials,” Mr. Govindan said.
He said the ED has ceased to be a professional investigation agency under the BJP. Populated by BJP loyalists, it worked as the cat’s paw of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Mr. Govindan alleged.
BJP State secretary K. Surendran said his party would counter the CPI(M) bid to threaten constitutional agencies from carrying out their duty. He said the CPI(M) found the ED’s investigation politically embarrassing by the day as more and more skeletons in the party’s cupboard tumbled out.
