Kerala Pravasi Association Chairperson Arrested for Allegedly Forging ED Letter to Extort Money

The chairperson of the Kerala Pravasi Association (KPA) has been arrested on charges of forging an ED letter with “the intention of fraudulently obtaining information from a prominent credit society and extorting money,” police said. KPA is an NRI-led political movement, which joined hands with the state’s ruling Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Ernakulam rural police arrested Rajendran Vellapalath, a middle-east based businessman, on Thursday. He was later sent to judicial custody. Rajendran is also the founder of Indiafirst, a hyper local news and OTT streaming platform, which is based in Kozhikode. Rajendran was booked under sections 308 (extortion), 319 (2) (cheating by falsely representing an identity), and 340 (2) (forgery) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). Police sources said more persons could be involved in the alleged extortion racket. “We are also probing whether the arrested person has extorted money from other companies with forged ED notices. We have taken the statement of the ED officials, who said they have not issued such a notice,’’ said an official. The complainant in the case is Thrissur-based Indian Cooperative Credit Society Limited (ICCSL), a multi-state cooperative society that has a bouquet of financial products. On the sequence of events that led to the complaint, police said the ICCSL general manager received a letter on October 13, purportedly sent by a senior Enforcement Directorate (ED) officer, asking the society to furnish information under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The letter claimed that the ED had received a complaint related to money laundering and had initiated a preliminary probe. The letter sought several details including “suspicious transaction report shared with RBI, deposits and loans.’’ Days later, Rajendran allegedly met ICCSL chairperson Sojan V Avirachan with the offer to “settle the ED probe”. Police said, “Rajendran wanted the ICCSL to make a huge investment in his company and claimed that he had settled several such ED cases with prominent companies.” ICCSL chairperson confirmed that Rajendran had approached him. “He also made me listen to certain audio clips in this regard. He wanted the society to invest a huge amount of money in his company. We had contacted the ED office in Delhi and they were ignorant about such a notice. Subsequently, we filed a complaint with the state police chief,’’ Sojan told The Indian Express. Though KPA had joined the UDF as a partner before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, it has not contested any elections since then. However, Rajendran had closely worked with prominent Congress leaders during the 2024 general elections as well as the 2026 Assembly elections. He is said to be closely associated with top leaders of the UDF. However, his Facebook profile has pictures of him with leaders of parties outside the state’s ruling alliance as well.