BSNL Engineers’ Cooperative Society embezzlement: Meeting between depositors, former board cancelled

A scheduled meeting of depositors of the controversy-ridden BSNL Engineers’ Cooperative Society Ltd and former members of the director board in the presence of Kerala government officials did not take place on Tuesday.

The official version is that the meeting was deemed “unnecessary” as the Vanchiyoor police had registered an FIR on December 24 based on a complaint pertaining to massive financial irregularities in the cooperative society.

Tuesday’s meeting, which was planned at the office of the Assistant Registrar, Cooperative Societies, was reportedly suggested by the police last week. However, the depositors and the former director board members had turned up for the meeting, although the police did not.

At the venue, the depositors also confronted former society president A. R. Gopinathan demanding to know the fate of their deposits.

On Monday, the Cooperation department had appointed Suresh Kumar C., Assistant Registrar (General), Thiruvananthapuram, as administrator of the society for a period of six months. The term of the director board had ended on December 21.

The Vanchiyoor police had registered a case under IPC Sections 409 (criminal breach of trust) and 420 (cheating). The FIR has listed as accused the ‘president,’ ‘secretary’ and ‘trust members and employees’ of the BSNL Engineers Cooperative Society Ltd.

According to the complaint, the accused had siphoned off fixed deposits worth ₹44,14,37,950 from 1,255 depositors during the period from June 1, 2019 to June 16, 2020. The deposit details were not entered in the official register, but in a fake one, by the accused, according to the complaint.