Kerala’s Congress Chief Minister Oommen Chandy has filed a criminal defamation case against con woman Saritha S Nair, prime accused in the infamous solar scam, and four senior journalists complaining that she and the others had hatched a conspiracy to defame him and telecast a report alleging that he had sexually abused her at his official residence, Cliff House, in Thiruvananthapuram.
The journalists listed as accused in the defamation petition filed by the Chief Minister are MG Radhakrishnan, Editor of Asianet News TV channel, Vinu V John, Senior Mews Editor of Asianet News, Manoj K Varma, Chief News Editor of CPI(M)-backed Kairali TV and K Rajendran, Senior News Editor of Kairali TV.
Saritha Nair is named as fifth accused while Radhakrishnan, Vinu, Manoj and Rajendran are accused one to four. According to the complaint filed in the Ernakulam Chief Judicial Magistrate Court, Kochi, Saritha and the four journalists had hatched a conspiracy to defame Chandy and had aired reports on the sex abuse allegation through the two TV channels on April 3 and 4.
“On April 3, acting in collusion with accused one to four, the fifth accused released a truncated letter (allegedly written by her while she was in judicial incarceration) wherein it was stated that she was raped by the complainant (Chandy) in his official
residence, Cliff House” the petition stated.
It added, “Common sense fails to comprehend as to how such an incident can occur in the Cliff House where the complainant is residing with his family and several security guards.” The two TV channels had released the 25-page letter she had allegedly written while she was in custody in solar scam-related cases in July, 2013 in which she said Chandy had abused her sexually.
Chandy said in the complaint that enquiries made it clear that the letter was “a newly drafted one (not written in 2013) made at the instance” of his adversaries to tarnish his image and reputation and to ensure that the Congress party met with defeat in the May 16 Assembly election. All the accused had “definite political intentions” to defame him in the eyes of the public, he said.
He also submitted in the petition that the four journalists were aware that Saritha Nair was not speaking the truth. Praying to the court to take cognizance of his complaint, the Chief Minister requested it to proceed against the five accused as per the sections of the IPC pertaining to defamation and Section 120 B dealing with criminal
conspiracy.
“I welcome the defamation case,” Saritha told a TV channel after reports on Chandy’s petition appeared in the media on Friday. “If he feels that he can silence me with a defamation case, he will soon realise that this exercise is useless. The Chief Minister has the
responsibility to disprove my allegation but he cannot do that,” she added.
Saritha’s former live-in partner and business associate Biju Radhakrishnan had earlier told the judicial commission probing the solar scam that she had sexual relationship with Chandy and that he had evidences to substantiate the charge. But Saritha had then rejected Biju’s claim and said that the Chief Minister was a fatherly figure as far she was concerned.
However, toward the end of January, she had pushed Chandy into an unenviable situation by alleging that he had taken `1.90 crore as bribe for helping her in her solar power business. She had also leveled bribery charges against Congress members of the Cabinet, including Power Minister Aryadan Muhammad.