A dramatic exercise by the judicial commission looking into Kerala’s infamous solar scam involving money, sex and political power, ended in anti-climax on Thursday with a team deputed by the panel failing to find the CD which the prime scam-accused, Biju Radhakrishnan, said was there as proof of his explosive charge connecting Chief Minister Oommen Chandy with con woman Saritha S Nair, Biju’s former live-in partner and co-accused in the scam.
A team, comprising Biju, representatives of the Justice G Sivarajan Commission and policemen, sent on an evidence-gathering exercise by the panel from Kochi, returned late Thursday night from Coimbatore without being able to unearth any CD, pen drive or any other form of visual evidence against the Chief Minister.
Instead, some relatives of Biju living in Selvapuram, Coimbatore handed over to them a cloth bag containing some files and other stationery, reports from the Tamil Nadu city said. The relatives said these were articles Biju had given them almost two-and-a-half years back before his arrest in connection with the solar scam.
The commission had decided to send the team on the exercise after Biju claimed before it that the CD to prove his charge against Chandy had been kept secretly at a place that was within a six-hour driving distance from Kochi. The commission had earlier asked Biju to produce the evidence for his allegation against Chandy on Thursday.
Even as Biju’s trip to Coimbatore progressed, Saritha Nair told the media, “It is a trip in search of a non-existent CD. I am sure of this because nothing of the sort Biju is saying ever took place.” However, observers said that it was a day of shame for entire Keralites as they were left to witness an exercise to determine the moral credibility of their Chief Minister.
The trip was highly dramatic with the commission imposing restrictions on the use of mobile phones by the policemen accompanying Biju, who did not reveal the destination till the end of the trip and the police trying to shake off the tail of the several vehicles of TV channels which were following them throughout the trip.
Biju had on December 2 alleged that the Chief Minister, two Ministers in his Government and some other Congress leaders had sexual relationship with Saritha and that Chandy had taken Rs 5.5-crore bribe from his company, Team Solar Energy Solutions. He had also said that he had evidence to support his charge and was ready to produce it before the panel.
However, Biju told the commission on Thursday that he would need a minimum of one-and-a-half months to retrieve the CD. But the commission adopted a firm stand that Biju should retrieve it from wherever it was being kept on Thursday itself.
Biju said he was prepared to retrieve it on three conditions: He wanted his lawyer to accompany him, the policemen accompanying him should not use their mobile phones and there should be no action against the person who had been keeping the evidence for him.
Justice Sivarajan rejected the first condition but imposed restrictions on use of phones by policemen on the trip. He also assured that there would be no action against the person who was keeping the evidences. Then the dramatic trip in search of an explosive CD began from Kochi at 3.45 pm on Thursday.
The solar scam pertains to the duping of several people of many crores of rupees by Biju and his partner Saritha promising to start lucrative solar power business allegedly with the active involvement and support of some of the former aides of the Chief Minister. It was also alleged that the fraudsters had used the Chief Minister’s office as their operational base.