Saritha S Nair (36), controversial heroine of Kerala’s infamous solar scam and the con woman who had allegedly made Congress Chief Minister Oommen Chandy’s office the operational base for her fraudulent business deals, walked out of the prison on Friday after getting bail in the dozens of cases in which she was prime accused. She had spent a total of 263 days in prison.

Coming out of the Women’s Prison at Attakulangara, Thiruvananthapuram where she had been lodged since July last, told newsmen that she would talk to them after a couple of days but added that she would not speak about politicians or matters that could put other people into trouble. However, reports said several top politicians were already in the grip of anxiety.

“Saritha won. law failed,” was how the State Government’s Chief Whip PC George responded to the news of her release. But Saritha herself said she was not in the mood to speak to the media immediately but would like to relax and spend some time with her children “whom I have not seen for the past nine months.”

Saritha Nair had been the focal point of the solar scam since it broke in the media by mid-June last after her arrest in one of many cases of fraud and cheating against her. The issue had caused a political storm within the Kerala Assembly and across the State and had kept the Congress-led UDF government on the verge of collapse for several months.

The con woman, along with her former live-in partner Biju Radhakrishnan, had duped several people in the State of crores of rupees by promising them to install solar power plants in Kerala and windmill farms in Tamil Nadu with all the subsidies and assistances the Centre and State Government were providing.

For this, Saritha and Biju had convinced their victims about their close relationships with the top people in power, including Chief Minister Chandy. Chandy was forced to expel two of his close aides, Tenny Joppen and Salim Raj, from his staff after it was proved that they had been in regular contact with her directly and over the phone even at unearthly hours.

The scandal had virtually turned Chandy into a fugitive within the State he ruled as he was forced to cancel his official programmes and avoid main roads while travelling in the face of stiff protests after one of Saritha’s victims alleged that he had met the Chief Minister in his office in Thiruvananthapuram in the presence of Saritha.

left with no option, the Government constituted a special investigation team of the Kerala Police headed by Additional DGP A Hemachandran to look into the 33 cases of fraud and cheating registered against Saritha and Biju at various police stations in the State. The SIT concluded that the amount Saritha had collected through her fraudulent deals was outside of Rs 6 crore.

From the beginning of the SIT probe, there were allegations that it was interested in concealing facts in the 33 cases against Saritha more than revealing them. Even now, there are allegations that Saritha would not have got bail at this stage had the police not helped her by not booking her under serious charges like conspiracy.

The political storm over the solar scam reached its peak when the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (Economic Offences), Kochi refused to record Saritha’s statement under Section 164 of the CrPC when she wanted to tell him about the “top people” who had allegedly “misused” her.

Saritha had deposited more than Rs 12 lakh for getting bail in the courts in various cases and had reportedly “arranged” several lakhs of rupees to settle her cases out of the court with her victims leading to controversies over the sources of this money with the Opposition and a section of the media alleging that top Congress leaders were arranging funds for her.