Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy’s former personal assistant Tenny Joppen had conspired with the other perpetrators of the infamous solar power scam for committing financial fraud and that he had made financial gains from such deals, the State Government told the High Court on Tuesday.
Opposing the bail application filed by Joppen, Advocate General KP Dandapani said that he had collaborated with con woman Saritha S Nair and her ex-husband Biju Radhakrishnan with the knowledge that they were fraudsters. Dandapani also said that the goal of the three persons was indeed money-swindling.
According to the Government, scam victim Mallelil Sreedharan Nair of Konni in Pathanamthitta district had paid money to Saritha Nair as per the instructions of Joppen. Nair had struck the final deal for a solar power project in Palakkad at a meeting with Saritha Nair and Joppen at the Chief Minister’s office in the State Secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram.
Dandapani said Joppen’s wife had told the police that he had made financial gains out of the deal and opposed the bail plea saying that the case could get derailed if he was released. Joppen, charged with cheating, is the third accused in the case of duping Sreedharan Nair while Biju and Saritha are first and second accused respectively.
In his argument, Joppen’s counsel pointed out that the police had not so far questioned Joppen’s wife. He also argued that Joppen’s name had not even been mentioned in the complaint filed by Sreedharan Nair. The court, which demanded production of the case diary, deferred the case for orders. The case against the trio has been registered in a Pathanamthitta court.
Joppen, who used to be one of the most trusted aides of the Chief Minister, was arrested on June 23 on the basis of Sreedharan Nair’s complaint that Biju and Saritha, who had been running a bogus solar power company, had cheated him by taking Rs 40 lakh from him promising to install a solar power plant in Palakkad.
Chandy had announced Joppen’s expulsion from his personal staff on June 14 after a police examination confirmed the Opposition’s charge that he had made hundreds of phone calls to Saritha Nair. It was found that Joppen had been in telephonic conversation with Saritha 71 times in the three days prior to her arrest on June 3.
legal experts are surprised that Joppen had been arrested though his name had not been mentioned in the complaint of Sreedharan Nair while no action was being taken against the Chief Minister, who according to the complainant had given him assurance in Saritha’s presence on the basis of which he had cleared the final payment of Rs 10 lakh to the fraudsters.
Meanwhile, a Malayalam TV channel on Tuesday quoted Bangalore-based businessman MK Kurivila, arrested by the Kerala Police on June 24 for alleged financial fraud, as saying that Chief Minister Chandy and his family were behind the company of Biju Radhakrishnan, who had also been accused of murdering his former wife Rasmi in 2006.
Claiming that it had recorded Kuruvila’s statement in a sting operation at the prison where he was being held in remand, the TV channel quoted him as saying that he was arrested not because there were any genuine cases against him but with the intention of blocking the disclosure of stunning facts about the involvement of Chandy’s office and aides in the scam.
Kuruvila also said that the police were charging case after bogus case against him with the intention of holding him in prison as far as possible and that Chief Minister Chandy and Home Minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan were behind this. “Chandy’s entire family is involved in the company of Biju,” the TV channel quoted the businessman as saying.PTI