Master swindler gets bail after 13 months

13 October 2009

Thiruvananthapuram, Oct 13: The 21-year-old mastermind behind a Rs.500 crore financial fraud Tuesday walked out of jail after a Kerala court gave him bail in the 32 cases against him.

Sabarinath, who spent more than 13 months in jail, gave a surety of Rs.46 lakh in the cases against him. He is alleged to have swindled more than 3,000 investors through his share broking firm.

He promised to address a press conference soon.

"Instead of talking to you here, I think it is best that I call a press conference soon and speak to you," Sabarinath said outside the Central Jail before driving away with his counsel.

The financial fraud surfaced in September last year when Sabarinath was arrested after the share brokerage firm he ran here closed down.

Eleven others were also arrested -- his father and five women, including two staffers, a woman bank officer, a doctor and a state government official. Some of his advisors were also nabbed.

While the rest had got bail earlier, Sabarinath was given bail Monday evening and released Tuesday afternoon.

The case had hit headlines after one of the accused, Dr Remani had appeared on TV to say that Sabarinath was only a tool and the real culprits included the sons of state Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan and Health Minister P.K. Sreemathy.

Communist Party of India-Marxist (C-M) state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan had dismissed the allegations against his party colleagues as baseless.

In a story that could be straight out of the films, Sabarinath, who has studied till Class 12, had fallen out with his parents when they refused to give him money to start his business. He began as a financial consultant with a life insurance company and in 2007 launched his firm Total4U.

He used to offer Rs.160,000 on an investment of Rs.100,000 for three months.

Sabarinath had a lavish lifestyle and owned many luxury cars. He even opened a recording studio in a prominent hotel at Kochi in July. Police had seized more than a dozen luxury cars, including a brand new BMW he gifted his girlfriend.