Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 30 (IANS): Eyebrows have been raised at the manner in which an unstarred question in the Kerala Legislative Assembly was withdrawn on Tuesday. It disappeared from the Assembly website but came to light when the booklet consisting of unstarred questions for the day was distributed. It was found that the question by CPI-M legislator H. Salam on the state of the numerous scams that have surfaced pertaining to cooperative banks, was cancelled and written withdrawn.

Of late the ruling CPI-M has been in deep trouble with local CPI-M leaders in Trissur in jail following the more than Rs 300 crore Karavannur Cooperative Bank fraud, presently under investigation by the Enforcement Directorate. In this case senior CPI-M legislator and former state minister for cooperatives A.C. Moideen and former legislator and president of the Kerala Bank M.K. Kannan have been questioned by the ED on more than one occasion after links with the leaders now in jail surfaced.

According to sources the decision to withdraw the question was taken as the ruling CPI-M felt, even though a few scams involving the opposition Congress and its allies have also surfaced and are being investigated, that they might be caught on the wrong foot if Salam’s questions were answered.