NV Raju, former Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (Economic Offences), Kochi, on Friday informed the judicial commission looking into the solar scam that con woman Saritha S Nair, chief perpetrator of the scam, had complained to him that she had been sexually abused but he had not recorded the statement despite the crucial nature of the case even as the panel was told that a close aide of Chief Minister Oommen Chandy had allegedly taken money from Saritha.
The Kerala High Court had on April 11 served a memo of charges on Raju, presently Chief Judicial Magistrate in Kasaragod, for not recording the statements Saritha had made before him in a closed court in July, 2013. The High Court had given him 15 days’ time to furnish his explanation for the failure to record the con woman’s statement.
The judge told the Justice G Sivarajan Commission that he did not listen to Saritha’s statement on the names of those who had abused her sexually but instead asked her to give her complaint in writing. She had also spoken of two persons with some financial connections with her but here also he had not taken note of the names she mentioned, he said.
The judge did not give a reasonable explanation for not recording Saritha’s statement despite the commission’s repeated demands. However, with Friday’s deposition, Raju has confirmed the statement he had given earlier before the Vigilance Registrar of the High Court who had looked into his failure to record Saritha’s statement in July, 2013.
Raju said that a police officer probing the solar scam had asked him whether Saritha had complained about some political leaders, including Ministers, who had abused her sexually. The judge tried to claim that he, as a CJM, had certain privileges connected to deposing before a judicial commission but the panel rejected this as it had taken the High Court’s permission.
The solar scam pertained to the duping of several people of crores of rupees by Saritha and her former live-in partner Biju Radhakrishnan by promising to install solar power projects. Saritha had taken the help of several Congress leaders for this business and had allegedly made the office of
Chief Minister Chandy her operational base with the help of some of his former aides.
On Friday itself, former Minister and chairman of Kerala Congress (B) R Balakrishna Pillai told the judicial commission that Saritha Nair had in her secret notes, now known as her prison notes, mentioned that Thomas Kuruvila, Delhi-based non-official aide of Chandy, had taken Rs25 lakh from her.