The judicial probe announced by Kerala’s Congress-led UDF Government into the infamous solar scam involving sex, money and governmental power, in which Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, his office, aides, several Congress Ministers and a top UDF leader are accused of direct involvement, has turned into a farce for all practical purposes.
The first proposal to hold a judicial probe into the scam was made on August 13 and the notification for it had come on October 28 but not a single paper had been examined by the commission headed by retired judge G Sivarajan till date even as con woman Saritha S Nair, chief perpetrator of the scam, is preparing to walk out of jail on bail.
The Government seems to be determined to go as slow as it can on the judicial probe but equally disinterested is the CPI(M)-led Opposition lDF, which had held a series of agitations over the scam demanding Chandy’s resignation. The lDF has already said that it would not cooperate with or support the judicial probe as it is not being done by a sitting judge.
The Government had constituted a special investigation team of the Kerala Police to look into the 33 cases registered against Saritha Nair and her former husband Biju Radhakrishnan but its conduct also has come under a cloud of suspicion after the High Court last week asked raised pertinent doubts regarding the wealth amassed by the con woman.
The scam pertains to the duping of many individuals in Kerala of several crores of rupees by Saritha and Biju (and also actress-dancer Shalu Menon) with the help of some of the former aides of Chief Minister Chandy, promising to install solar power plants. It has been alleged that Saritha had made the Chief Minister’s office her operational base for perpetrating the fraud.
The Chief Minister had first aired his readiness for a judicial probe as demanded by the Opposition on August 13 in order to force the lDF to suspend its massive siege to the State Secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram. The Government took a formal decision in this regard three days later.
On October 23, the Government appointed Sivarajan as the head of the enquiry commission and a notification in this regard was issued on October 28 with the instruction to submit the report within six months – that is before April 28. One of the strange aspects of the probe is that it is not yet clear whether the Chief Minister and his office would come under its purview.
“last week’s High Court observation has proved that the police’s SIT has not been able to find out anything about the scam in the past six months. If that is so, how can the judicial commission, which is yet to start work, complete the probe in less than four monthsIJ It is a farce,” said a former top Kerala Police official.
Reports show that it will take at least a month for converting the room allocated to the commission in a Kochi building into an office. “That means there will be just two months left for the commission to complete its job. And the commission perhaps doesn’t have anything more to find out especially when even the terms of reference are not clear,” he said.
In the meantime, Saritha has got bail in 29 of the total 33 cases registered by the police against her. She is expected to get bail in the remaining cases soon. legal experts say that she has been able to achieve this as the police had avoided slapping serious charges like conspiracy on her and had charged her only for crimes like cheating.