Congress Concealed Second Bank Account Used for Wayanad Fund Drive

Thiruvananthapuram: Fresh details have emerged about serious financial irregularities in the Congress's fund collection drive, ostensibly launched to build houses for survivors of the Mundakkai-Chooralmala disaster, revealing that the KPCC concealed a second bank account and that crores of rupees collected in the name of relief were withdrawn in multiple tranches and transferred to undisclosed recipients.

KPCC president Sunny Joseph had recently disclosed only the figures from one account — a Dhanalakshmi Bank account at the Sasthamangalam branch, linked to the 'Stand With Wayanad INC' app, which was opened on August 17, 2024, when K Sudhakaran was KPCC president. The amount he cited from this account was Rs 5.38 crore. However, a second account was also operated at the Pattom branch of Federal Bank, into which more money were received and subsequently withdrawn in multiple instalments. Notably, around Rs 53 lakh from this Federal Bank account was transferred to the account of a Malayali based in the UAE. The same individual also received Rs 1 crore from the Dhanalakshmi Bank account in February.

The irregularities deepen further when the timeline is examined. Although the app became operational on August 21, 2024, the party's political affairs committee had already directed mandalam committees to begin collecting money from August 9 onwards — before any formal digital platform was in place.

The figures disclosed by Sunny Joseph do not add up. Despite an extensive collection drive involving Congress's diaspora organisations, mandalam committees, and contributions from leaders across the country — including Rs 1 crore from the Tamil Nadu state committee, Rs 15 lakh from Telangana minister Seethakka, and Rs 2.30 lakh from Rahul Gandhi himself — Sunny Joseph claimed only Rs 3.78 crore reached the account earmarked for house construction, pleading insufficient funds. The discrepancy strongly suggests that not all collected funds were deposited into the declared account, with suspicions that money was diverted to other KPCC accounts or to personal accounts. The QR code on the fundraising app is also reported to have been misused.

On the other hand, the DYFI raised Rs 20 crore for Wayanad landslide victims entirely through honest means — collecting scrap, doing manual labour, and mobilising workers — channelling all of it to the Chief Minister's Distress Relief Fund without a single rupee going astray.