For Kerala’s Congress-led UDF Government, the infamous solar scam which had kept it on tenterhooks for several months last year due to allegations of connections between con woman Saritha S Nair, prime accused, and the office of Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, is now a mere cheating case.
In an explanatory note filed on Tuesday before the G Sivarajan judicial commission inquiring into the matter, the Government claimed that the solar scam needed to be considered merely as a case of financial frauds committed on investors by a solar power company and that the Government had nothing to with it as the State had suffered no financial loss.
The Government’s note said that the commission need not consider certain allegations raised before it in writing by the CPI(M)-led Opposition lDF - concerning the reported connections among the Chief Minister, his office, his aides and Saritha S Nair - as these charges were based on baseless reports that had appeared in the media.
The Government pointed out that the Opposition lDF had already announced its decision not to cooperate with the judicial commission’s inquiry until the Chief Minister resigned, adding that this made clear that the Opposition was against the commission. It requested the commission to consider only such media reports which had revealed sources of information.
Stating that the police investigation into the scam was still continuing, the Government said in the note that the case pertained only to the financial fraud committed by solar power agency Team Solar Energy Solutions owned by Saritha Nair and her former live-in partner Biju Radhakrishnan which had taken money from investors for erecting solar power plants.
The Government said that the commission could consider the records of the State Assembly where extensive discussions had been held on the scam. But most of the charges against the Government in the case are said to have been removed from the House records. In short, the note contained only the explanations the Government had given in the Assembly.
About the charges being raised by some parties in the case about certain allegations leveled by Government Chief Whip PC George on the connections between Chandy and Saritha Nair, the note said that the Assembly records were not clear about this. It added that some of the references made by the Chief Whip had been removed from the House records.
Kerala’s infamous solar scam pertains to the financial frauds committed by Saritha Nair and Biju Radhakrishnan. The duo, who were running a solar power agency based in Kochi, had cheated many people in the State by collecting several crores of rupees promising to install solar power panels and windmills.
The allegation that made the fraud a political scam was that the duo had been cheating their clients with the reported assistance of Chief Minister Chandy’s then personal assistants Tenny Joppen and Jikkumon Jacob and former gunman Salim Raj. Tenny Joppen was later arrested in a case related to the scam and Jikkumon resigned.
Chandy found himself to be in an unenviable situation after businessman Mallelil Sreedharan Nair, one of the investors from whom Saritha had duped of millions of rupees, alleged that he had met the Chief Minister in his office at the State Secretariat along with the con woman in the presence of Tenny Joppen. The Chief Minister denied the charge.
This was followed by the appearance in the media of a photograph which showed Saritha Nair whispering in the ear of Chandy at a public function at Kadaplamattom in Kottayam district. The solar scam had triggered such a political scam in the State that there were several occasions when the Chandy Government had found itself on the verge of collapse.