Pushing Kerala’s beleaguered Congress-led UDF Government into a deep crisis before the crucial Assembly polls in May, con woman Saritha S Nair on Wednesday charged Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and Power Minister Aryadan Muhammad of taking bribe from her for promising to help her in “fraudulent” solar power business. Both Chandy and Aryadan have denied the charge.
Saritha told Justice (Retired) G Sivarajan Judicial Commission looking into the solar scam that she had paid Chandy Rs1.90 crore as bribe through his “unofficial” aide in Delhi, Thomas Kuruvila, for facilitating installation of mega solar power projects in Kerala. The money was given to Kuruvila as directed by Jikkumon Jacob, then additional PS to Chandy.
She said Rs1.10 crore of this was handed over to Kuruvila at Chandni Chowk in New Delhi in December 2012 and the remaining Rs80 lakh was given to him later at her house at Edappazhanji, Thiruvananth-apuram. The Chief Minister himself had enquired about the money while in Delhi, Saritha said. He alleged that through Jikkumon Chandy actually demanded Rs7 crore.
The con woman also told commission that she had given Rs40 lakh to Aryadan through his private secretary Kesavan in two installments. According to her, Kesavan had asked for Rs2 crore. She had met Aryadan as advised by Chandy for getting governmental help for the mega solar power projects her company, Team Solar, was planning to set up.
Coming within five days of the resignation of his close confidant K Babu as Excise Minister over the charge of taking Rs1-crore bribe from bar owners, Saritha’s ‘disclosures’ became a political bombshell for Chandy and his Government with the Opposition left instantaneously demanding his resignation by saying that he, as Chief Minister, had brought shame to entire Keralites.
Saritha’s charges came just 34 hours after Chandy completed his day-night deposition and cross-examination before the judicial commission. He is the first Kerala Chief Minister to appear before a judicial panel. In that session, Chandy said that Saritha might have met him three times, but he refused to be subjected to a polygraph examination.
Making matters worse for Chandy, a recording of a phone conversation of PCC general secretary Thampanoor Ravi, his close aide, on Tuesday evening, in which he was heard instructing Saritha to depose before the judicial panel in a way that would help Chandy, appeared in the media on Wednesday along with reports on her shocking deposition.
“Is any Keralite going to believe what she is sayingIJ” asked Chandy while denying the charge. “First let her state what benefit she and her company had derived by bribing us. look who is claiming that such a huge bribe was paid! Even the Rs2 lakh cheque they had given to the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund had bounced,” Chandy told newsmen in Thiruvananthapuram.
Responding to criticisms why she had chosen to “disclose” these matters only now and not in the earlier sittings of the commission, she said, “I have been trying to protect these Congress leaders so far hoping that they would return the money. But they were going around openly describing me as a woman of bad character. So I decided to tell the truth.”
Contradicting Chief Minister’s claim before the commission that he had not met businessman Mallelil Sreedharan Nair, who claimed that he had met Chandy along with Saritha, she said such a meeting had indeed been taken place. At that meeting, the Chief Minister had assured Nair every help for the solar power project her company was planning to install for him.
Biju Radhakrishnan, Saritha’s former live-in partner and co-accused in the solar scam, had earlier accused Chandy of taking Rs5.50 crore from him and of having sexual relationship with her. Though he claimed that he had audio-visual evidence to establish the charge, he had failed to produce the material. However, Biju has so far refused to withdraw his charge.
The Opposition has already given indications of how it is going to use the development politically. “The Chief Minister is standing naked before the people. His continuation in power is a shame to the State. The Governor should stay away from making the policy speech in the Budget session of the Assembly,” said Opposition leader VS Achuthanandan.