Microfinance case back in spotlight, SNDP Yogam chief Natesan likely to feel the heat
Kochi, Aug 14 (IANS) The long-running microfinance case involving SNDP Yogam General Secretary Vellappally Natesan is back in the spotlight, with the Kerala High Court questioning the delay in filing charge sheets and the investigating officer admitting that prosecution has so far not filed any in any of the cases.
The development assumes added political significance as the case originated from a complaint by former Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan, who died last year, and remained under investigation through the decade-long tenure of the previous LDF government.
Appearing personally before the High Court, investigating officer S.P. Sashidharan said the involvement of the accused had been established in eight cases.
Investigations in the Pulpally and Ranni cases had been completed, but charge sheets could not be filed as the investigating agency was awaiting government sanction to prosecute the accused.
The High Court has now directed the Additional Chief Secretary of the Backward Classes Development Department to consider the pending prosecution-sanction applications in September itself.
The investigating officer told the court that charge sheets would be filed once the sanction was obtained.
The case dates back to 2016, when Achuthanandan complained of alleged financial irregularities in a microfinance scheme associated with the SNDP Yogam, the powerful social organisation of the Hindu Ezhava community.
He had alleged that about Rs 15 crore was misappropriated through financial irregularities and conspiracy involving loans obtained from the Kerala State Backward Classes Development Corporation in the names of women.
The case had remained politically sensitive during the years of the previous government, particularly against the backdrop of the widely discussed political proximity between former Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Natesan.
Their relationship had often figured in political debates, while differences between Vijayan and Achuthanandan had been a long-standing subject of discussion within the CPI-M.
The CPI-M’s post-election review of the LDF’s 2026 electoral setback had also referred to the political costs of the perception surrounding Vijayan’s proximity to Natesan.
With Congress’s V.D. Satheesan heading the new government, the political equation has changed considerably.
Satheesan and Natesan have not shared the political rapport associated with the previous dispensation.
Against this backdrop, the High Court’s intervention and the government’s pending decision on prosecution sanction have given the decade-old case a fresh lease of life.
Whether the change in political circumstances will translate into movement on a case that has remained without a charge sheet for years is now the question.
–IANS
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