444 cases registered but only one being probed

Thiruvananthapuram: The promise made by the chief minister in the assembly that an effective probe will be conducted into the cases registered over BSNL Engineers Cooperative Society fraud has remained unfulfilled.
Investigations are yet to be conducted into hundreds of cases registered at the Vanchiyoor police station in connection with the fraud. The probe has been moving at a slow pace due to the delay in getting the DGP’s consent to handover the cases to the new crime branch team.
Soon after the fraud came to light, a special investigation team of the crime branch (economic offence wing) headed by DSP Sajad was formed to probe the case.
The city police commissioner issued the directive on the basis of a complaint submitted by the joint registrar of the cooperative society. The crime branch team is at present probing just one case, but the other cases registered at Vanchiyoor police station, based on the complaints of other fraud victims, are not being probed now, said investigating officers.
DSP Sajad said that his team has been probing only one case and the remaining cases have to be probed by the local police. However, local police said they are not investigating any of these cases as the investigation has been handed over to the crime branch.
Even as the crime branch investigation has been progressing, more people have been levelling complaints at Vanchiyoor police station. Even on Friday, three new cases were registered, taking the total number of cases to 444. “One among the complainants has approached the high court and the local police were directed to register and investigate each complaint independently. Hence, we have been registering new cases, but we have not launched investigations,” said a police officer.
“All the cases have been handed over to the crime branch team. A request regarding this was given to the state police chief via the city police commissioner. However, no decision has been taken over it so far,” he said.
The society received crores of rupees as deposits from hundreds of people offering lucrative interest. However, the depositors lost their money and were forced to approach the police to get their money back. In the preliminary inquiry conducted by the cooperative department, a fraud worth Rs 44 lakhs was reported.