Trouble mounted on Thursday for Kerala’s Congress party, already beleaguered by the infamous solar scam, with fresh evidence coming up for the sabotage of the 21-page statement prepared by con woman Saritha S Nair, main perpetrator of the scam, allegedly describing her connections with top Congress leaders including Ministers.
According to the reply given on August 20 by the superintendent of the district prison, Pathanamthitta where Saritha was being lodged to an application filed under provisions of the RTI Act, her lawyer Fenni Balakrishnan had received from the jail the 21-page statement prepared by her for presenting before the court.
Instead of this statement, what reached the court was a three-and-a-half-page note Saritha had handed over to the superintendent of the Women’s Prison in Thiruvananthapuram which had contained no incriminating mentions against any Congress personalities, triggering allegations that the ruling party had forced her to change her version using threats and money.
On Thursday, State BJP general secretary K Surendran, who had obtained the jail official’s reply as per the RTI Act, demanded an explanation from Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and the Congress for the situation. He reiterated the charge that it was Excise Minister K Babu and MlA Benny Behennan,
both Chandy-loyalists, who had forced her to change the statement.
The solar scam pertains to the duping of several people of crores of rupees by Saritha, her ex-husband Biju Radhakrishnan and his girlfriend and actor-dancer Shalu Menon with the help of the Chief Minister’s staff members, promising to install huge solar power plants with all the benefits announced by the State and Central Governments.
The Chief Minister was pushed to a spot after demands mounted for his resignation following a scam victim’s disclosure that Chandy had personally given him assurances on the credibility of Saritha’s fraudulent firm during a meeting at his office in the State Secretariat in the presence of the con woman and Chandy’s aide Tenny Joppen, who is presently behind the bars.
After Saritha had submitted the brief statement before NV Raju, Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (Economic Offences) in Kochi, through the prison authorities, the Congress and the UDF Government it led, had argued that there was no 21-page statement written by Saritha as the Opposition parties alleged and lawyer Fenni Balakrishnan claimed.