Saritha S Nair, main accused in Kerala’s infamous solar scam who had last week charged Chief Minister Oommen Chandy with taking bribe from her, on Tuesday leveled more allegations against him saying he and his office were behind the growth and decline of her fraudulent solar power company, Team Solar Energy Solutions.
Saritha, who deposed before the Justice (Retired) G Sivarajan Judicial Commission for the fifth day on Tuesday, said Chandy had advised Team Solar to focus its attention on mega solar power projects. Saritha had produced three CDs and several documents before the commission the other day in support of the charges she had made earlier.
The Chief Minister had promised Team Solar to make available 113 acres at the Kinfra Park in Palakkad for installing a solar plant, she claimed. However, she said she did not know the truth of the claim made by Biju Radhakrishnan, her former live-in partner and co-accused, that Rs5.5 crore was paid to Chandy for this.
Saritha, described as a con woman who had made the CM’s office her operational base for the solar power business with her connections with his former aides, had pushed the Congress-led UDF Government into a deep crisis last week with her charge that she had paid Rs1.90 crore and Rs40 lakh respectively to Chandy and his Power Minister Aryadan Muhammad as bribe.
On Tuesday, Saritha disclosed the names of more Congress leaders who had allegedly taken money from her fraudulent company. According to her, Congress MlA Benny Behennan, known as Chandy’s personal trouble-shooter, had accepted Rs5 lakh as party fund in November, 2011 without giving any receipt.
likewise, PC Vishnunath MlA, another confidant of the Chief Minister, had taken Rs2 lakh as donation from Team Solar in two installments when he was leading an all-Kerala Youth Congress march, Manavikatha Yatra, as its State president in 2012. No proper receipt was provided for this also, she said.
Saritha told the commission that her company had given money as donation to party fund to several other Congress leaders also but she did not have evidence for this as she was not directly involved in these transactions. She said she would furnish the evidences as and when these were available to her.
On Tuesday, Saritha agreed to submit the details of the “secret notes” she had prepared while in detention in the jail after her arrest in the cases of cheating related to the solar scam to the commission in sealed envelopes. The notes were said to have contained the names of the political leaders who had used her physically and financially. “The letter as such will not be handed over to the commission. But there have been a lot of allegations regarding the letter,” Saritha told newsmen outside the commission’s office in Kochi. Her deposition before the judicial commission came to a conclusion on Tuesday morning and cross examination started in the afternoon.