BSNL scam: Moorthy in crime branch custody

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: BSNL former deputy manager and Nanthencode native P R Moorthy will be taken into custody in relation to the BSNL engineer's cooperative society scam. The crime branch approached the court seeking one week of custody of Moorthy who was earlier in remand. Moorthy will be questioned along with the main accused in the scam, A R Gopinath. The crime branch thus hopes to untangle the gordian knot circling the scam. The police had registered a case of criminal breach of trust and cheating against the president, secretary, and trust members of the society after the depositors alleged that they had siphoned off around Rs 200 crore from about 2,000 account holders.

Gopinath took a fair share of depositors' money to run his real estate business, and even after knowing this scam, Moorthy beseeched many other people to deposit their money. The WhatsApp chats and the documents related to the transfer of money have been acquired by the investigation team. A R Rajeev who is a close associate of Gopinath and a wanted one in the scam is still at large. The custodial period of Gopinath ends in two days and the investigation team looks to arrest the rest of the culprits within this time to do a required combined questioning session.