The Judicial Commission looking into Kerala’s infamous solar scam is likely to examine Chief Minister Oommen Chandy as a witness considering the allegations of involvement leveled against his office and some of his former personal staff members.
The Justice G Sivarajan Commission may also examine former Home Minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan, currently Forest and Transports Minister, as a witness. The decision is based on a long list of witnesses drawn up on Wednesday at a sitting of the commission which is yet to take a final decision on the persons to be examined and exempted.
The solar scam pertains to the allegation that con woman Saritha S Nair and her former live-in partner Biju Radhakrishnan had duped many people of several crores of rupees by offering to help them with solar energy solutions through their allegedly fraudulent company, Team solar Energy Solutions.
Saritha and Biju, arrested in June last year as main accused in more than 30 cases relating to the fraud, had allegedly converted the Chief Minister’s office into their operational base with the help of three of his former aides. They were also said to have received help from some State Ministers, a former State Minister, a former Union Minister and several MlAs.
The commission is likely to examine the Ministers, MPs and MlAs who had either alleged to have had connections with the main accused or had raised allegations against them. Those who were accused of having links with Saritha included Tourism Minister AP Anil Kumar, former Minister KB Ganesh Kumar and former Union Minister KC Venugopal MP.
The list of witnesses drawn up by the commission for examination include ten Ministers, two former Ministers, five MlAs, a Youth Congress leader, the Congress leaders who were accused of arranging money for Saritha for sabotaging the case, an industrialist who leveled allegations of fraud against the CM, etc.
The panel is expected to record the statements of Chandy’s former office staff Tenny Joppen and Jikkumon Jacob and former gunman Salim Raj who was also allegedly involved in some fraudulent land deals. The commission may record the statements of Chandy and Thiruvanchoor only towards the end of the process.
Those whose statements are to be recorded by the commission include Additional Director General of Police A Hemachandran who headed the police team which probed the solar scam and the superintendents of the prisons at Thiruvananthapuram and Pathanamthitta where the main accused, Saritha and Biju, had been lodged.
Among the witnesses is NV Raju, the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate of Ernakulam, who had stirred a hornets’ nest by failing to record the statement of Saritha Nair. The panel, which is currently looking into the allegations raised inside and outside the State Assembly, is expected to examine the complainants first.
The Congress-led UDF Government headed by Chandy had reached the verge of collapse last year after businessman Mallelil Sreedharan Nair, a victim of the fraud, alleged that Saritha had arranged a meeting between him and Chandy at the CM’s office at which Chandy gave assurances about the con woman’s solar energy solutions business.