Solar scam sleuths to probe payoffs to public personalities

The Special Investigation Team probing the solar scam may decide on quizzing prominent personalities including actor Mammootty and Mayor Tony Chammany who have reportedly received monitory benefits from the accused.

The investigators expect to obtain the custody of the accused Biju Radhakrishnan and Saritha S. Nair on Thursday. The course of investigation including quizzing the celebrities and tracking the money spent on them will be decided after the interrogation.

There were also indications that the accused had made pay-offs to some public personalities. The move to recover the money that the accused had disbursed as environmental awards and other pay-offs will also be finalised after the interrogation later this week, sources said. Meanwhile, the investigators have written to nearly 50 banks seeking information on the financial transactions of the accused in the scam. Details of financial transactions linked to 13 known accounts, which were operated by the accused, have been collected. However, nothing significant was left in these accounts.

Mr. Mammootty and Mr. Chammany were among the six prominent persons who had received cash awards from Team Solar, the firm floated by the scam accused. The awardees had received cash prizes worth Rs. 25,000 each at a function held in Kochi earlier.

A few awardees including Mr. Chammany had agreed to pay back the money they received from the firm. As the money spent on the awardees is the proceeds of the crime, it may have to be recovered, they said.

The investigators will also decide how to deal with the actor, who had allegedly collected Rs.10 lakh as appearance fee from the accused for an event organised in connection with the presentation of awards.

Though he had acknowledged the receipt of the cash award, he reportedly denied collecting appearance fee from the accused, sources said.

Policemen on the trail of the financial dealings of the accused could not track Rs.1 crore, which the accused had collected from various persons.

The accused might have splurged the money through their lavish lifestyle. A major portion of the spending of the swindled money was successfully accounted for, sources said.