THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Victims of the BSNL Engineers Cooperative Society scam have alleged that the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Crime Branch failed to add several persons in the chargesheet. The EOW submitted the chargesheet in the fifth additional district sessions court last Friday. The victims alleged many benamis have been omitted.
They said among those not named in the chargesheet are society president and first accused A R Gopinathan’s daughters Deepa and Divya, his friend Sheeja Manikandan’s daughters Ahalya and Akshaya, Gopinathan’s brother Raveendran and his family members Shailaja, Rajeesh, Renjith and Madhusudhanan Nair. The victims alleged the EOW did not include the relatives in the list of accused despite evidence of them acquiring properties disproportionate to their known income sources.
“He purchased about nine acres of land in Kadakampally under benamis, of which 1 acre and 26 cents are in the name of his daughter Deepa, a vocational high school teacher,” said a victim who did not wished to be named. The victims also alleged that Gopinathan, along with A R Rajeev, a clerk in the society, “converted” depositors’ money into land, gold, and luxury vehicles. Despite the severity of the allegations, all 15 arrested persons have been released on bail, which has sparked worries among the victims. “We are worried about the accused persons influencing the investigation,” said a victim.
The crime branch had arrested Gopinathan and Rajeev on charges of fund misappropriation to the tune of Rs 260 crore in December 2023. A few weeks ago, the accused persons were granted conditional bail. Last month, the victims had filed a complaint before the additional director general of police (ADGP) alleging lenient approach by the investigators in the case.