With con woman Saritha S Nair getting bail in more cases related to Kerala’s infamous solar scam which had set off a political storm in the State and as efforts are on for out-of-court settlement of fraud cases associated with it, the legal wars over the scandal seem to be losing steam gradually even as the High Court on Friday termed Saritha as a woman with close links to the corridors of power.
While considering the bail petitions Saritha Nair had filed in two cases, the HC orally observed that it was now certain that she had connections to the corridors of (governmental) power. The court’s observation, in effect, confirmed the general belief that Saritha was close to powerful men in the Congress-led Government, including Chief Minister Oommen Chandy.
However, the court did not include the observation in its records following a request from Saritha’s lawyer who argued that the even the special investigation team which probed the solar scam cases had not aired such an opinion. Saritha faces the charge that she had used her alleged friendship with Chandy and some of his former aides to develop her fraudulent business.
There are allegations that Saritha had used the Chief Minister’s office as the operational base for her shady solar energy business with the help of his former personal assistants Tenny Joppen and Jikkumon Jacob and ex-gunman Salim Raj. Chandy expelled the three aides in June after a police Intelligence report confirmed their relationship with the con woman.