The judicial commission probing Kerala’s infamous solar scam was on Monday told that a former aide of Chief Minister Oommen Chandy had assured a scam victim about the reliability of the solar power business run by con woman Saritha S Nair and her former live-in partner Biju Radhakrishnan, main accused in the case relating to the scandal.
KM Sajjad of Perumbavoor, who was duped of Rs 40 lakh by Saritha and Biju promising to install a solar power plant and a windmill, told the Justice G Sivarajan commission which started examining witnesses on Monday that Jikkumon Jacob, then the personal assistant of the Chief Minister, had assured him that Saritha had the capability of executing her projects.
According to Jikkumon, Saritha, then known as lakshmi Nair, and Biju were regular visitors to the Chief Minister’s office in the State Secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram, Sajjad, on whose complaint the duo were first arrested, said. Saritha and Biju had duped dozens of people of several crores of rupees using their fraudulent company, Team Solar Energy Solutions.
The duo had shown him a letter from Chandy directing all concerned department heads to expedite the process of licensing of the solar projects installed by Saritha’s company, Sajjad said, adding that the letter had carried the seal and signature of the Chief Minister though he was not sure whether it was genuine.
Sajjad said that the assurances on Saritha’s business by Jikkumon, a Facebook friend, had worked as encouragement to give Saritha and Biju the money they had asked for. He had given them Rs 20 lakh before he spoke to Jikkumon and another Rs 20 lakh after that, he said. Jikkumon had resigned as Chandy’s personal assistant after the solar scam broke.
The judicial commission is expected to complete recording statements of the eight people who had filed complaints against Saritha and Biju in connection with the solar scam. The commission has drawn up a plan to examine several people as witnesses, including Chandy, some of his Cabinet colleagues, Congress MlAs, MPs, a former Union Minister.
The CPI(M)-led Opposition lDF had demanded the Chief Minister’s resignation in the context of the commission’s decision to examine him. The panel is expected to examine solar scam victim Mallelil Sreedharan Nair, who had alleged that the con woman had arranged a meeting for him with the Chief Minister at which she also participated, on Wednesday.
The scam pertains to the duping of several people by Saritha and Biju of several crores of rupees promising to install solar power plants allegedly using the Chief Minister’s office as their operational base with the assistance of his former aides Jikkumon, Tenny Joppen and Salim Raj, who were in regular contact directly and telephonically with the con woman.
According to Sajjad, ADGP K Padmakumar, then IG, had told him that his case against Saritha would ultimately be “settled” as several cases involving them had been settled in the past. Interestingly, Saritha had in November last filed a complaint saying Padmakumar was involved in the uploading of some of her nude and semi-nude videos on the social media.
Sajjad told the commission that he had informed the police officials about the letter of Chief Minister which Saritha and Biju had in their possession but he had never been asked for details. A police official had told him that he should not have any hope of getting his money back as there were “top men” who were intervening in favour of Saritha and Biju, he told the panel.