(Representative Image)

KANNUR: Cooperative officials have unearthed yet another case of swindling, to the tune of nearly Rs three crore, from a Cooperative credit society at Karivellur near Payyannur in the district, following which the police have registered a case against its secretary, K V Pradeepan. Similar cases were reported from a few other banks earlier.

According to Payyannur police, the fraud came to the fore during an inspection by a team of cooperative inspectors at the Congress-led Social Workers’ Co-operative Welfare Society, on Friday and Saturday.

As per the reports by the inspectors, Rs 2,98,48,090 was given as loan to different people, by pledging nearly 13,287 grams of gold in the last three years. Incidentally, the tenure of the loan for nearly Rs two crore was over and it was not taken by the parties who pledged it or the Society had not taken any steps to auction it.

When the Society secretary was asked about it, he said the auction would be held next month. However, the officials examined a few packets of the pledged gold and they had suspicion that it was fake. So they got an appraiser from outside, as this Society did not have an appraiser, and it was found that the gold ornaments pledged there were fake. However, by the time the fraud was unearthed, the secretary managed to give the slip to the officials who said that in all probability he only was behind the swindling.

Later, based on the report by the officials, the president of the society, A V Girish, filed a complaint, and the police registered the case. Police said efforts are on the trace Pradeepan, who is said to be on the run.

