THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A year after the Total 4U cheating case surfaced, the Crime Branch, which probed the case, filed the charge sheet on Friday.
Twenty persons, including Sabarinath, Dr Remani and Chandramathi Amma, have been listed as the accused in the case. They have been charged under various Sections of the Indian Penal Code for cheating, conspiracy and forgery. Chandramathi Amma, who is the third accused, had recently got bail on the grounds that the case was not charge sheeted even 90 days after her arrest.
This had prompted the Crime Branch to file the charge sheet without further delay.
According to the charge sheet filed at the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Court, nearly 1,200 persons were cheated of around Rs 50 crore from April 2007 under the banner of several financial firms floated by Sabarinath, without the permission of the Reserve Bank of India.
As many as 320 persons, including actress Roma, are included as witnesses in the case.
Roma had reportedly performed in a music album produced by Sabarinath.
The Crime Branch had also submitted 501 documentary evidences and 308 material evidences. As per the charge sheet, a firm in the name Nest Investment Solutions was initially floated by Sabarinath as managing partner and his father Rajan as partner.
Later, firms were started in the names INEST, Total Solutions (Total 4U) and SJR Group. They had subsequently entered into a conspiracy with the other accused in the case and had collected huge deposits from individuals. The accused had also fabricated a fixed deposit certificate of Rs 50 crore at Centurion Bank and used it to mislead the depositors.
The accused had utilised the deposits for personal benefits. As many as 21 luxury cars were recovered from the accused and it was also found that Sabarinath had given Rs 8 crore to several persons as advance to purchase land. Seven of the accused are still absconding. The cheating was exposed as the firms failed to return the funds of several depositors. The Medical College police had initially started the probe in August 2008 and the investigation was later transferred to the Crime Branch.
A team led by Crime Branch DySP P Reghu probed the case under the supervision of SP Harshita Attaluri and the charge sheet was scrutinised by ADGP (Crimes) Netto Desmond, IG (Crimes) R Sreelekha and special prosecutor Rajagopalan Nair. Besides the main case, 18 other cases were also registered in connection with the Total 4U fraud on the basis of petitions filed by the victims.
Separate charge sheets would be filed in those cases, said Crime Branch sources.