Kerala’s beleaguered Congress Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and his 26-month-old UDF Government on Tuesday came under heavy fire from the High Court over the infamous solar scam, in which Chandy was allegedly involved, giving more ammunition to the Opposition lDF to intensify its demand for his resignation.
The Government and police came under scathing criticisms on Tuesday from two different benches of the High Court simultaneously. While one bench asked whether there was a bid by the police themselves to derail the probe into the solar scam, the other wanted to know why there was no attempt to examine the alleged role of Chief Minister Chandy in it.The Chief Minister, however, rejected demands for his resignation once again, saying, “I respect the judiciary. But I am not here to do things as per the interpretation of court observations that media try to enforce on me.” Chandy and the Congress adopted a position that the court had made no comments against him as proof would be unavailable as the remarks were oral.
While considering a petition filed by businessman MK Kuruvila seeking a Crime Branch probe on his complaint in connection with the scam, Justice VK Mohanan asked the Government counsel whether an inquiry was not required to find out if the cheating had taken place with the knowledge of the Chief Minister. The Government counsel had no clear answer to this. According to Kuruvila, three men posing as relatives and personal staff members of Chandy had defrauded him of over Rs 1 crore with the promise to install a solar power project for him. The Chief Minister himself had earlier admitted that Kuruvila had approached with a complaint over the scam but no action had been taken on that.
When Government counsel Rajesh Vijayan submitted to the court that Kuruvila had filed a bogus complaint, the court asked whether they were trying to transform the complainant into the defendant. Justice Mohan wanted a clear explanation from the Government and asked it to submit it before the court took up Kuruvila’s petition again on August 8. “Satellites” used to revolve around centres of power at all times and everywhere but probes like those concerning the solar scam should not examine the satellites’ role only but they should also examine the role of the power centres themselves, the court said.
At the same time, Justice SS Satheeshchandran who considered the bail petition filed by dancer-actress Shalu Menon, a perpetrator of the scam, asked Director General of Prosecutions T Asif Ali whether there was any effort from the part of the Government and police to sabotage the investigation.