Con woman Saritha S Nair, one of the perpetrators of Kerala’s infamous solar scam, on Saturday threatened to take legal action against Opposition leader VS Achuthanandan and State BJP general secretary K Surendran for their comments on a disclosure that she had shared bed with Congress leaders including Union Minister KC Venugopal and State Minister AP Anilkumar.
After meeting Saritha at the women’s prison at Attakkulangara, Thiruvananthapuram, her lawyer Fenni Balakrishnan said that she would file complaint against Achuthanandan and Surendran at the Ernakulam North Police Station in Kochi for insulting womanhood. “She will reveal everything once she is out of the prison,” Fenni said.
According to Fenni, Saritha will file complaints against her former husband Biju Radhakrishnan, main perpetrator of the solar scam, and his lawyer Jacob Mathew. Biju had a week ago said that Saritha had shared bed with Venugopal, Anilkumar and former Minister KB Ganesh Kumar while Mathew claimed that he had video clippings to prove this.
However, Fenni later changed his version while speaking to the media saying that his client’s allegation against Achuthanandan and Surendran might not be maintainable as they had only made some comments on others’ statements.
Achuthanandan responded to Saritha’s threat with a statement that could trigger yet another controversy in the coming days. “Does Saritha have any womanly qualities left in herIJ Isn’t it up to women with such qualities to make such complaintsIJ” he asked in Kozhikode when newspersons brought to his attention the threat of Saritha.
“I haven’t insulted any woman or her womanhood. What I spoke of was the reluctance of Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and others to take action against the guilty on the basis of the disclosures made by Biju Radhakrishnan. Everybody knows that I am not scared of cases,” Achuthanandan said.
“It is the police who are making her file complaints for Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, Home Minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan and the Ministers who are facing allegations,” BJP leader Surendran said. “I welcome her decision to initiate legal proceedings. It will be helpful for bringing out a lot of truths related to the solar scam,” he added.
Just before Achuthanandan’s statement came, Chandy said he was pained by his earlier statement. “Achuthanandan’s statement on Biju’s claims was not decent. The Opposition leader shouldn’t have taken such a stand,” the Chief Minister said. “let it be so,” was Achuthanandan’s reaction when Chandy’s words were brought to his notice.
Fenni Balakrishnan said that Saritha would also take legal action against NV Raju, Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (Economic Offences), Ernakulam who had told the Vigilance Registrar of the HC that she had submitted before him in July that certain top leaders had exploited her sexually.
“It is good if Saritha is going for legal action. It will give me a chance to release the video (showing Saritha sharing bed with Ministers and others) as part of the proceedings,” said Biju’s lawyer Jacob Mathew. He had said that he would release the video once his client Biju, a co-accused of Saritha in 33 scam-related cases, permitted.
In Kottayam, Home Minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan said that the people who were claiming to posses such sleaze videos should release them immediately. “It is not appropriate to go on threatening to release it. The aggrieved parties have already challenged these people to release those videos,” he said.