Thrissur: Wadakkanchery Congress MLA Anil Akkara on Tuesday afternoon ended the seven-day indefinite fast demanding revocation of the state government’s decision to dissolve the managing committee of Adat Farmers’ Service Co-operative Bank alleging financial misappropriation. He was arrested and shifted to Thrissur Medical College Hospital on Tuesday morning and admitted to the ICU there. A medical team deputed by the DMO had found his condition deteriorating since Monday. The MLA said in a press release that he was handed over the copy of the joint registrar’s order to dissolve the managing committee of the bank by tahsildar C.B. Chandrababu at the hospital.
“I had demanded the copy of the order which was supposed to be served a week ago to the bank. Co-operation Minister Kadakampally Surendran spoke to me over phone on Monday morning and requested me to call off the fast. I told him to conduct a formal and legal inquiry into the allegations against the farmers’ bank. As the High Court has accepted the petition filed by the bank over the dissolution, I will also implead in the case. As the matter is before the HC, my indefinite fast will be viewed as an attempt to put pressure on the judiciary and hence I am calling it off,” he said.
He also refuted the CPM allegation that he was given a relaxation of Rs 24 lakh in repayment of the loan by the farmers’ bank a few days before filing nomination to contest the Assembly elections last year. “The loan was availed of by my father 20 years ago and after he died, the court ordered to pay Rs 2.5 lakh. Due to financial difficulties I could not pay it then. Bank manager Indira Priyadarshini, who is the wife of former CPM MLA Babu M. Palissery, asked me to pay an amount to settle the loan before the elections and I paid it,” he said.
