Kerala Police arrest Congress-allied body chief over fake ED notice extortion racket

The Kerala Police have arrested Rajendran Vellappalath, the national president of the Congress-allied Kerala Pravasi Association, on Thursday (November 12) over his alleged link to an extortion racket that used fake Enforcement Directorate (ED) notices to target institutions. A Special Investigation Team (SIT) have intercepted and arrested Vellappalath from Nedumbassery in Ernakulam.

He leads the Kerala Pravasi Association, an alliance with the United Democratic Front (UDF). Police suspect Vellappalath of leading an organised racket that sent forged ED notices to multiple organisations, falsely accusing them of money laundering. The gang would then reportedly offer to resolve the "investigation" in exchange for large sums of money.

The racket surfaced while investigating an extortion attempt targeting the Indian Cooperative Credit Society Limited (ICCSL), which operates across five states. The SIT is currently assessing whether other major institutions in Kerala and pan-India level fell victim to the same racket.

How police busted racket?

The case came to light after it was set in motion by a formal complaint lodged by Meenu John, Chief Executive Officer of the ICCSL, headquartered at East Fort in Thrissur. The FIR says the investigating team received a communication on October 13, dated October 5, purportedly issued by the Enforcement Directorate's Delhi Zonal Office-II. The fake communication claimed it was issued by Arvind Kumar Singh, Assistant Director (PMLA), and included an official-looking reference number.

Investigators allege the notice, which claimed to probe the cooperative society over financial irregularities including money laundering, was actually a front for impersonating Enforcement Directorate officials to extract confidential data and extort funds from the institution.

The complaint states that two phone numbers were included with the notice. On contacting them, the cooperative was reportedly told the money laundering matter could be closed for good if senior management agreed to negotiate and route payments through those contacts.

Wary of the notice’s authenticity, the cooperative reached out directly to the agency’s zonal office in Delhi, which confirmed no such notice had been sent. ICCSL CEO Meenu John subsequently filed a police complaint on November 2 after this verification.

Three charges under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita were invoked in the FIR: extortion under Section 308, cheating by personation under Section 319(2), and fraudulent use of a forged document under Section 340(2). The offences are recorded as having taken place between October 13 and November 2. Though the FIR named the accused as unidentified at first, a Special Investigation Team traced digital and physical evidence that culminated in the arrest of Rajendran Vellappalath in Nedumbassery.

What began as a single extortion case has expanded into a probe targeting a suspected countrywide fraud ring. Authorities believe other organisations may have been similarly targeted and are now investigating Rajendran’s possible role in coordinating the scheme, whether others were involved, and if funds were extorted from additional institutions through comparable fake notices.