Gopinathan Nair, one of the main accused in the notorious Elamgulam Service Cooperative Bank scam, was arrested after 27 years on Wednesday. Nair, who had been on the run since the late 1990s, was apprehended at Nedumbassery airport while attempting to flee to the United States.
Nair, a former secretary of the CPM-controlled Elamgulam bank, had been absconding for years following the scam that involved crores of rupees. According to a Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau official, Nair had initially escaped to Bahrain, where he had been living with his daughter. After the case was registered in 1998, a warrant was issued for his arrest. The authorities later placed a lookout notice for him.
As Nair and his family were planning their relocation to the US, where his daughter had already moved, the authorities tracked his movements. He had returned to Kerala and was hiding in a house near Ernakulam, avoiding the use of a mobile phone to evade detection.
The Vigilance Bureau was alerted by airport authorities after Nair was detained at Nedumbassery on Wednesday morning. He was subsequently arrested and remanded in judicial custody.
This marks the culmination of a long-pending case that has spanned over two decades, with Nair now facing justice for his role in one of the most significant banking frauds in Kerala’s history.
