A court in Pathanamthitta, Kerala on Thursday refused to release copies of the statement recorded under Section 164 of Mallelil Sreedharan Nair, victim of the infamous solar scam, to the counsel of third accused Tenny Joppen, former personal assistant to Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, and others.
The decision of the First Class Judicial Magistrate Court - 2 is significant in the context of reports that the statement, contained the charge that Chandy had direct involvement in the scam. “The court has the authority to refuse to release copies of the statement. But in this situation, the decision may seem mysterious,” said Government Chief Whip PC George.
According to Sreedharan Nair, he had given Rs 40 lakh to con woman Saritha S Nair, one of the two main perpetrators of the scam, for installation of a solar project after the Chief Minister gave him personal assurance on her business in her presence in a meeting at his office on July 9, 2012. Chandy has admitted meeting Nair on that day but has insisted that Saritha was not present there.
GM Kuruvila, counsel for Joppen, had requested for a copy of the statement Nair had given in a court saying that it was necessary for handling his client’s case. Kuruvila had argued that the statement was not a secret document and that there was no order against its release. Eight others had applied for copies of Nair’s statement.
At the same time, the public sector Kerala State Electronics Development Corporation (Keltron) has informed the special investigation team that the CCTV recordings of the CM’s office for July 9, 2012 cannot be retrieved. The recording is vital to the case as it could help in confirming or rejecting Nair’s charge against the Chief Minister.
When pushed to the corner by the Opposition which wanted to see the CCTV recordings for the particular day, Chandy had said that his office was on round-the-clock webcasting and CCTV recordings were not available. Then the Opposition sought the CCTV recordings of the office’s surroundings but Chandy said these were being kept in the computer systems only for 14 days.