The investigation by a special team of the Kerala Police into the infamous solar scam has reportedly come to a standstill for all practical
purposes due to alleged political intervention. The team, headed by ADGP (South) A Hemachandran, is of the feeling that the investigation cannot go ahead without the Judiciary’s guidance — like in the case of the 2G scam.
Sources in the police secretly admit that there is immense political pressure on the team to investigate the scam as a case of mere financial fraud and thus exclude the alleged role of politicians from its ambit while even senior officials are of the feeling that the essence of the scam itself is the nexus between the fraudsters and powerful politicians and their aides.
Reports suggest that the main impediment to the progress of the probe is the inability of the police to question Chief Minister Oommen Chandy against whom serious allegations of involvement have been leveled by scam victim Mallelil Sreedharan Nair, whose complaint is the main basis for the present investigation, the Opposition and the media.
The special team’s probe has made no progress at all since the arrests of Tenny Joppen, former aide of the Chief Minister, on June 28 and actress Shalu Menon on July 5. “Every child in Kerala knows that more than 75 of this scam is political. How can it be probed as a case of mere financial offenceIJ Can Keralites be fooled just like thatIJ” asked a former top police official.
The scam pertains to the massive financial fraud committed by con woman Saritha S Nair, her ex-husband Biju Radhakrishnan and presumably some others with the obvious help of people in power. Saritha and Biju had cheated several people by collecting crores of rupees from them promising to install solar power projects for them with all normal Government subsidies.
According to scam victim Sreedharan Nair, he had given `40 lakh to Saritha for installing a solar power project after a meeting with the Chief Minister in his office along with her and Joppen on July 9, 2012. Nair has said that he had given the money to Saritha after Chandy gave him the necessary assurances personally on the project and about Saritha’s business.
The police had arrested Joppen, who had close connections with Saritha like some other Chandy aides, even when there was no direct mention against him in Nair’s complaint to the police or his statement under Section 164 in the court.
Police officials now ask how they can exclude Chandy from the ambit of the probe when direct charges have been leveled against him.
However, the probe team has limitations — or it is virtually impossible for them - to question Chandy as long as he remains as the Chief Minister though he continues to claim generously that he would
welcome any action from the part of the police. Also, the police have not been able to arrest other Chandy aides with known links to Saritha for obvious reasons.
Another problem the police are facing is their inability to examine the CCTV recordings of the CM’s office for July 9, 2012 to find out whether Saritha was there on that day.