Chandy accused of giving money to con woman

Two years after it first threatened to destabilise the Congress-led UDF Government he was leading, the infamous solar scam-hit Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on Friday in an extremely damaging way with a sting video showing scam perpetrator Saritha S Nair’s former lawyer Feni Balakrishnan making the disclosure that Chandy had been secretly helping Saritha financially after she was arrested two years back over the scam-related cases.

According to the video, Feni himself had collected the millions of rupees Chandy had sent to the con woman for the purpose of settling her cases. In the video, released by a TV channel, the lawyer is seen as saying that senior Congress leader Thampanoor Ravi had been acting as Chandy’s money-carrier.

As per the video, which showed Feni in conversation with two of his friends about the transactions between Saritha and top Congress leaders, Ministers Aryadan Muhammad and Adoor Prakash, AP Abdullakutty MlA, and former Union Minister KC Venugopal MP, all from Congress, also had given money to Saritha after she was arrested in June, 2013. However, the lawyer claimed that he had never made any such disclosure anywhere.

In the video, Feni is seen telling his friend Rajasekharan, former general manager of Saritha’s company Team Solar Energy Solutions, “Thampanoor Ravi used to bring the money… He was getting the money from the Chief Minister. After Saritha’s arrest, the Chief Minister had assured me over the phone that every required arrangement had been made.”

The “disclosure” triggered intense protests across Kerala on Friday. The CPI(M)-led Opposition lDF and the BJP demanded resignation of the Chief Minister and registration of a case against him. Revenue Minister Adoor Prakash faced the fury of youth outfits which held black-flag demonstrations against him.

However, Chandy rejected the allegations. “I don’t know anything… I am hearing such a thing for the first time,” he said. Ravi refused to respond but Prakash looked extremely angry when he asked, “Why should I give money to SarithaIJ” The development has caused huge embarrassment to the UDF especially in the context of the crucial June 27 Assembly bypoll in Aruvikkara.

At the peak of the controversy over the solar scam two years back, there were reports that several Congress leaders had taken the money from Saritha, who had it collected illegally in the name of her solar power business and that a minimum of two State Ministers, a former Minister and a then Union Minister had abused her “physically” in relation with her business.

The most damaging allegation with regard to the scam was that Saritha had made the Chief Minister’s office her operational base with his silent permission and active assistance of some of his former aides. When the scam broke, Chandy claimed that he did not know Saritha but soon a photograph surfaced showing him in intimate conversation with the con woman.

Rajasekharan said everything being said on the sting video was true and that he was even ready to undergo any scientific examination to prove it but Feni Balakrishnan challenged the TV channel to prove that the voice in the video was his. Saritha herself said that Feni and Rajasekharan were airing their personal opinions over which she had nothing to say.

However, the con woman confirmed that several Ministers and MlAs had involvement in the solar scam, which pertained to the duping of many persons of several crores of rupees by Saritha and her former live-in partner Biju Radhakrishnan promising to install solar power projects. She said that she would hand over a list of such persons to the court in some days.

The video showed Feni as saying that Saritha had been receiving money even after she was released from the prison. The ‘disclosures’ came a day after a Pathanamthitta court sentenced both Saritha and Biju to six years’ imprisonment in a scam-linked case pertaining to the duping of an NRI of `1.19 crore promising to make him their company’s chairman.