The Ministers and other leaders who were sitting on the needle-point of anxiety over what con woman Saritha S Nair, prime accused in Kerala’s infamous solar scam, might state about them in her ‘secret’ complaint to the court can heave a sigh of relief, at least for now: Saritha has not made any reference to any of them in the complaint she filed on Monday.
According to sources, the four-page complaint she handed over to the superintendent of the woman’s prison at Attakkulangara, Thiruvananthapuram on Monday morning contained only personal matters: That there was threat to her life from ex-husband Biju Radhakrishnan, she was not the main scam perpetrator and that the media were targeting her.
However, the ‘harmless’ complaint is raising several serious questions making the scam a more mysterious affair. Her lawyer Fenni Balakrishnan still claims that he is in possession of a 19-page statement Saritha herself had written in which she spoke of how certain top political personalities — including State and Central Ministers — had “used” her.
Allegations have already come up to the effect that Saritha had gone back on the actual complaint she wanted to submit to the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Court (Economic Offences) in Kochi on how she had been a pawn in the hands of people sitting in high positions because of omissions and commissions on the part of judge, police and the Government.
ACJM NV Raju had on July 20 listened to Saritha’s secret deposition but decided against taking it in writing and asked Fenni to record it and to submit to him. However, on July 26, the judge forbade the lawyer from doing what he had asked him to do earlier and directed Saritha to write her complaint by herself and submit it to the court through the prison authorities.
State CPI(M) secretary Pinarayi Vijayan alleged that the Government had forced Saritha to change her statement, adding that this also should come in the ambit of the judicial probe the Opposition was demanding into the solar scam. “Saritha had wanted to make a secret deposition. But threat to one’s life is not something that should be conveyed in secret,” he said.
Government Chief Whip PC George of the Kerala Congress (M), third biggest constituent of the ruling Congress-led UDF said, “It is a very dangerous situation where even the Judiciary is becoming a subject of controversy. The people have reason to suspect that the Judiciary, like the legislature and Executive, has contributed in making this case murkier.”
Opposition leader VS Achuthanandan said he might even approach the High Court against the conduct of the Additional CJM Court if need be. “The High Court is yet to make its observation on the conduct of the ACJM. I will consider approaching the High Court if it is necessary after that observation comes,” he said.
The superintendent of the Attakkulangara prison had on Monday morning submitted Saritha’s complaint to the Additional CJM Court in Kochi which immediately handed it over to the Kochi Police for investigations. Saritha herself had written the complaint to submit which the court had given her time till Wednesday.
In another mysterious act, the prison authorities on Monday blocked Fenni Balakrishnan from meeting Saritha saying that she had not wanted to meet him. But Fenni said he had reached the prison after her mother had conveyed to him Saritha’s wish to meet him. He said he had got indications that he was blocked due to instructions to the jail staff from higher-ups.
Saritha said in the complaint that she was afraid that Biju and his girlfriend Shalu Menon, actress and third accused in some scam-linked cases, might endanger her life.