Angamaly Urban Cooperative Society Scam: two more arrested

The Crime Department (CB), probing an alleged mortgage rip-off amounting to round ₹96 crore on the Angamaly City Cooperative Society, on Wednesday (June 25, 2025) arrested two former director board members on prices of siphoning off funds via faux loans and cast paperwork.

The arrested have been recognized as Elsey Varghese and P.C. Tomy. Ms. Varghese was produced earlier than a court docket in Angamaly on Wednesday and remanded to the District Jail, Kakkanad. Mr. Tomy was remanded to the Aluva Sub Jail. The arrests adopted the Kerala Excessive Courtroom’s dismissal of their anticipatory bail pleas twice. Allegedly, Mr. Tomy and Ms. Varghese had been signatories to over 300 faux loans, every value crores of rupees.

The newest arrests have taken the whole variety of accused within the case to 9. The CB had earlier arrested former director board members T.P. George, Devassy Madan, P.V. Paulose, Mary Antony, Rajappan Nair, and Luxy Pleasure, Elsy Paul, spouse of P.T. Paul, the late former president of the Cooperative Society, and the alleged key accused former secretary Biju Ok. Jose, together with accountant Ok.A. Shiju.

The alleged rip-off got here to gentle following the dying of Paul. It was reportedly carried out with the assist of the land mafia, leaving traders within the lurch. Many had been unable to withdraw their financial savings even for marrying off their kids or medical therapy.

In line with CB sources, a number of loans had been taken within the title of Paul’s spouse, Elsey Paul, and crores of rupees had been transacted via her varied accounts within the society. She successfully served as her husband’s benami, with lots of his investments, together with these in land, made in her title. Throughout his tenure as president, a number of loans had been sanctioned to his associates on the identical title deeds and even photocopies of unique land paperwork. The director board was additionally packed together with his hand-picked cronies, the sources stated.

The CB discovered that 422 faux loans had been sanctioned towards the title deeds of properties, typically with out the data of the unique title holders. Moreover the faux loans, instances are additionally being registered on the native police station degree primarily based on petitions from traders complaining in regards to the failure to return their investments.

Francis Thoppil, Joint Registrar Basic, the Cooperative division, had issued an order to connect the properties of three individuals, together with a director board member, for defaulting on mortgage repayments of ₹25 lakh every. The CB case was registered primarily based on a criticism lodged by Mr. Thoppil.