The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Financial fraud case: anticipatory bail plea rejected

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Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Financial fraud case: anticipatory bail plea rejected

Staff Reporter

Thiruvananthapuram: Principal Sessions Judge K. Ramakrishnan on Wednesday rejected the anticipatory bail plea of Chandramathi, a State government employee who is being investigated along with financial fraud suspect Sabarinath and others on the charge of defrauding more than Rs.100 crore from the public by promising hundreds of depositors high dividends in a short term on their investments.

Ms. Chandramathi was working as an Assistant Manager at the State-owned Small Industries Development Corporation (SIDCO) when the Crime Branch arraigned her as one of the main accused in the cheating case.

Her counsel argued that the Supreme Court had directed the Crime Branch not to arrest K. Remani, a physician based in Kollam and another prime suspect in the case, for six weeks. It had directed K. Remani to cooperate with the ongoing investments into Inest and Total 4 U, the now defunct share market and commodity trading companies owned by Sabarinath.

Her counsel pleaded that the District Court issue a comparable order while considering the application for anticipatory bail filed by Chandramathi.

The court said that the applicant had not produced the copy of the Supreme Court judgment on Remani’s anticipatory bail plea. It was not aware of the circumstances under which the apex court issued the order.

It was not certain whether the same legal circumstances applied in the case of Chandramathi.

So the court could not view the apex court order in Remani’s case as precedent for granting bail to Chandramathi.

The court rejected her anticipatory bail plea ‘considering the current stage of the investigation and conduct of the accused.’

Public prosecutor A. Rajasenan appeared for the Crime Branch.

SP’s report

Earlier Superintendent of Police, Crime Branch, Harshita Attaluri had notified the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) that Chandramathi had amassed wealth beyond her known sources of income.

The SIDCO placed Chandramathi under suspension. In her report to the VACB, Ms. Attaluri said Chandramathi was a member of the Censor Board and had contacts with influential people in all walks of society.

She used these contacts to induce many investors to deposit huge amounts in Sabarinath’s firms.

Ms. Attaluri said Chandramathi had obtained huge amounts as commission from the “fake” companies for inducing people to invest in them. (Investigators said Sabarinath’s firms did not have Reserve Bank of India approval to accept deposits from the public.)

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