The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday carried out searches at 11 places across Kerala and Tamil Nadu in a money-laundering case linked to R Premkumar, founding member and de facto chairman and managing director of Bharath Lajhna Multi State Co-operative Society (BLM), and others. The searches, conducted under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), covered office and residential premises in Kochi, Kozhikode and Chennai, and ED sources said the operation was expected to continue on Thursday at premises not yet covered.

Source: PTI via Devdiscourse

Mirror Now, which also reported the coordinated action, said the ED's intervention follows an ongoing Kerala Crime Branch investigation into the society's financial activities and marks a significant escalation in scrutiny of the cooperative. The agency has registered an enforcement case information report (ECIR) against the society and Premkumar following allegations that BLM cheated members of the public by promising high returns on their investments.

Source: Mirror Now

Officials alleged that Premkumar misused his position to divert crores of rupees collected from public depositors to the accounts of his wife and relatives for personal use. The ED has also alleged that he pledged the society's Ragam Theatre with Brios Finvest without the money reaching the society, and that he acquired about 500 acres of land at Kancheepuram in his wife's name. Investigators have reportedly examined 320 bank accounts linked to the suspected diversion. All of these are allegations under investigation; no court has held Premkumar guilty.

The police case began with a complaint by a former BLM chief executive officer at Nadakkavu police station in Kozhikode alleging physical assault by Premkumar and others; the Crime Branch subsequently registered an FIR after finding suspected financial irregularities, and a separate cheating case was registered in Kothamangalam over an alleged fraud of Rs 1.6 crore. Crime Branch officers arrested Premkumar at his Nungambakkam residence in Chennai on October 29 and produced him before a judicial first-class magistrate court in Kozhikode. He secured bail shortly afterwards, citing procedural lapses in the arrest, and the Crime Branch has approached the court seeking permission to arrest him again.

BLM was established in Chennai in 2006 and claims around 150 branches and more than 15 lakh members across Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, which is why investigators say the outcome matters far beyond the individuals named. The society has denied the allegations against Premkumar and its management has maintained that its assets exceed its liabilities. What happens next depends on what the ED's searches yield, the Crime Branch probe, and the court's decision on the request to arrest Premkumar again.