The Congress in Kerala on Thursday launched a counter-offensive against the left over the solar power scam, which has pushed the UDF Government it is leading into a deep crisis, by accusing certain senior CPI(M) leaders of conspiring against Chief Minister Oommen Chandy even as police put yet another young actress under the scanner in the probe into the scam.
State Congress vice-president MM Hassan charged CPI(M) Politburo member Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, central committee member TM Thomas Isaac and State Secretariat member Elamaram Kareem of hatching a conspiracy against Chief Minister Chandy by making scam victim Mallelil Sreedharan Nair level allegations of involvement against him.
Hassan, a staunch loyalist of Chandy and a frontline warrior of Congress’s ‘A’ group led by him, aired the suspicion that these three Marxists had blackmailed Sreedharan Nair to force him to give statements against the Chief Minister. He demanded a thorough
probe into this aspect. Isaac rejected the charge saying, “Hassan has always had something against me.”
Sreedharan Nair, a businessman who had lost Rs 40 in a deal for solar power plant with scam perpetrator Saritha S Nair, had said on Monday that he had handed over part of the payment to the racket after getting assurances directly from Chandy during a meeting with him at his office where Saritha was present on July 9 last year.
Hassan went further by accusing Kodiyeri’s son Bineesh Kodiyeri, a film personality, of being an associate of the solar power racket. “As many as 14 cases had been registered during the lDF rule (when Kodiyeri was Home Minister) in connection with the solar scam,” Hassan said, adding that these cases were hushed up because of Bineesh’s association with the racket.
The Congress leader said that Bineesh Kodiyeri had involvement in the solar power scam and that was why no action was taken during the lDF rule in the case pertaining to the murder of Rasmi, first wife of Saritha’s ex-husband Biju Radhakrishnan, though scientific evidences were available against him.
Rejecting the allegation, Bineesh said that he would initiate legal action against Hassan. “I will send a notice to Hassan tomorrow itself… This is an effort at character assassination directed against my father in the particular context of their (UDF’s) panic over the solar power scam. It does not worry me,” said Bineesh.
At the same time, young actress Uthara Unni has come under the police scanner in the solar power scam as it has now been revealed that she had travelled from Chennai to Kerala twice last year using flight tickets purchased by Team Solar, the bogus company owned by Saritha and Biju. The police recorded Uthara’s statement and sources said she might be questioned again.
Uthara, daughter of actress Urmila Unni, had made a posting on her Facebook page on August 26 last year that she had been appointed as brand ambassador of Team Solar, and that she was grateful to Saritha and Biju for this. The police had arrested Shalu Menon, another actress, on July 5 for her involvement in the solar power scam.
Uthara told the police that she had no association with the company of Saritha and Biju while her mother said that her daughter’s links with Team Solar were merely as a model. At the same time, sources said that the police were planning to question another Kochi-based actress whom Saritha and Biju had allegedly approached.
