Saritha kept contacts with 23 policemen over phone

As many as 23 policemen have received calls from Saritha S Nair, the central figure in the energy equipment scam, during the period from January to April 2013. Police officials said that these calls were made at a time when several complaints against Team Solar were being received and investigations were being launched.

The officials who received the calls include five DySPs/ACPs, four circle inspectors, several sub-inspectors, assistant sub-inspectors and police station writers based in Ernakulam, Thiruvananthapuram and Pathanamthitta districts. Majority of the calls went to policemen of the sub-inspector, assistant sub-inspector and civil police officer ranks. Some, including an assistant commissioner of police, now promoted as a superintendent of police, received calls at both official and personal numbers. The highest number of calls were received by a policemen of the Special Branch who was entrusted with an inquiry against the fraudulent company. One of the officers of the Special Branch said that the city police commissioner had started receiving complaints against Saritha from January itself.

“In January, we were conducting enquiries against the company in two cases in which one person had lost as much as Rs 95 lakh. We had asked Saritha to appear at the office and she promised to return the money. Saritha returned Rs 40 lakh to the person who lost Rs 95 lakh. When she failed to return the rest of the money we registered a case against her. In another instance, we succeeded in helping a person recoup the entire money,” a police officer said. However, officials are clueless regarding why Saritha made calls police station writers. Police officials in the city claimed that Saritha had contacted these police men in order to negotiate with the people who had lost their money. After agreeing to a compromise, she returns some amount and then disappears, officials said.