Saritha S Nair, perpetrator of Kerala’s infamous solar scam who had the other day alleged that she had bribed Congress Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, on Thursday said she was standing firm in her charge and that she could produce evidences to support the allegations she had made before the Justice G Sivarajan Judicial Commission probing the scam.
She termed as a lie, the Chief Minister’s claim before the commission that he had come to know of Team Solar Energy Solutions, the fraudulent company run by Saritha and her former live-in partner Biju Radhakrishnan, only after her arrest in 2013, adding that Chandy himself had spoken about the company to other leaders in the Congress party.
Saritha had on Wednesday deposed that she had given `1.90 crore and `40 lakh respectively to Chandy and Power Minister Aryadan Muhammad, senior Congress leader, for getting Government support for her company’s solar power projects. According to her, she had paid the money to Chandy through his “unofficial” aide Thomas Kuruvila.
Continuing her deposition before the judicial commission on Thursday, Saritha said she had mentioned the matter of money given to Chandy and Aryadan while giving her statement before then Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate NV Raju in Kochi in July, 2013. The ACJM had noted this down, she claimed and added that her lawyer and a woman court staff were witnesses to this.
Saritha told the commission that there were efforts to influence her — so that she would not raise allegations against him and other Congress leaders who had taken money from her — through her mother and another person when she was under detention at the Women’s Prison at Attakkulangara in Thiruvananthapuram in connection with the cheating cases.
She said her mother and Pradeep Kumar, personal assistant to then Minister KB Ganesh Kumar, had visited her at the prison. They had reached the prison reportedly with the Chief Minister’s message assuring that she would get help for settling all the cheating cases out of court. Pradeep had told her that he had come as Chandy’s messenger.
Referring to her controversial 30-page prison notes, which allegedly contained the names of the Congress leaders and Ministers who had used her sexually and financially, Saritha said she replaced it with a four-page letter on the basis of the pressures Chandy exerted on her and Congress leaders Benny Behennan and Thampanoor Ravi had acted as mediators.
Saritha also said that she had met the CM even at Cliff House, his official residence in Thiruvananthapuram, in 2012 when his wife and son were there. He told her that he had met Biju Radhakrishnan just before the Government-organised Emerging Kerala global investors meet and the subject of discussion was personal matters, she told the commission.
Meanwhile, the judicial commission on Thursday morning rejected a plea of the lawyer of Aryadan Muhammad to cross-examine Saritha over her bribery charge against the Minister. The commission pointed out that it had sent notice to the Minister earlier to appear for deposing but he had not responded. Saritha’s deposition will continue on Friday.