Heads still continue to roll in Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy’s office over links with con woman Saritha S Nair who along with her ex-husband-partner Biju Radhakrishnan had duped many people to swindle several crores of rupees in the name of a fraudulent solar power business they were running.
Just two days after Chandy’s former gunman Salim Raj was suspended from the Police Department for his reported relationship with Saritha S Nair, additional personal assistant Jikkumon Jacob resigned on Wednesday after he was questioned by the special police team probing the solar power scam over similar allegations.
The Chief Minister had on June 14 removed his personal assistant Tenny Joppen and Salim Raj from his personal staff in the face of stiff protests from the Opposition lDF. Chandy had refused to suspend Salim Raj despite the several other allegations he was facing. Tenny, Salim Raj and Jikkumon were said to be the Chief Minister’s most trusted aides.
Jikkumon, hailing from Chandy’s native place Puthuppally in Kottayam district, used to look after his affairs there as well as accompany him when he went out of the State capital, Thiruvananthapuram. Since Chandy never owned a mobile phone, the only way to contact him while on the move was to call up Jikkumon.
Telephone records had shown that Tenny, Salim Raj and Jikku had been in regular contact, even at unearthly hours of the night, with Saritha S Nair. Records of Tenny’s phone had revealed that he had been in conversation with Saritha more than 70 times in the days preceding her arrest in a cheating case on June 3.
Saritha’s driver Sreejith had earlier told newsmen that he had taken her to the Chief Minister’s office at least a dozen times and that there was no difficulty in getting entry into the premises thanks to her links with Chandy’s closest aides. Meanwhile, the DGP ordered a department-level probe against Salim Raj.