Thiruvananthapuram, Nov 15 (IANS): Eyebrows have been raised after the pictures of State Higher Education Minister R. Bindhu attending the wedding ceremony of the daughter of an accused, who is on the run, surfaced on Monday.

The father of the bride -- Ambili Mahesh was one of the director board members of the Karuvannur Cooperative Bank in Trissur where an over Rs 100 crore fraud has surfaced.

A few of the office-bearers of the bank and the members of the director board, who are known CPI-M party members and fellow travellers, have by now been arrested, but Mahesh continues to be on the run and despite several months passing, the police have still not been able to arrest Mahesh and one more person.

The issue of fraud had rocked the Kerala Assembly and the Congress-led UDF and the BJP have by now held numerous protests against the Pinarayi Vijayan government for shielding the accused, even as innocent depositors of the bank are running from pillar to post to get back their deposits.

Even though the wedding ceremony that was attended by Bindhu, who is also the wife of acting CPI-M state secretary A.Vijayaraghavan, was held in the last week of October at her constituency in Irinjalkuda, it has become a controversy now after the pictures of Bindhu having food with the new couple, surfaced on Monday.

The party leadership in her constituency said the Minister was invited by the groom, whose family has been close with Bindhu's family for long, and 'nothing else needs to be dwelled into'.

Incidentally at the height of the protests by the opposition, the allegation that was raised was that a portion of the swindled funds was used in the election campaign of Bindhu.

The fraud turned serious when a 64-year-old depositor committed suicide after he received a foreclosure notice for recovering amounts that he never borrowed and it was then things turned murkier. The protests became louder which led to the arrest of a few employees and the board members.