Solar scam leads right up to the Kerala CM's doorstep
Pressure is building on Chandy and UDF as a number of PIL cases have been filed in various courts demanding a judicial or CBI probe into the matter.
Sex. Sleaze. Murder. The Kerala solar scam, with shades of all these and more, has become a political hot potato for Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and his 24-month-old government. A month after the arrest of Saritha S. Nair, 35, who had deep connections with the ruling United Democratic Front (UDF), Shalu Menon, a 28-year-old classical dancer and actor with equally formidable political links, was booked on July 5 in another cheating case related to the scam. Both were alleged accomplices of Biju Radhakrishnan, 38, the first accused in the scam who was arrested on June 17 in connection with the murder of his wife in 2006.
Similar to the hundreds of phone calls made by Saritha to UDF leaders, including state and Union ministers, MPs and MLAs, Menon's friendship with Home Minister Tiruvanchur Radhakrishnan and Kodikkunnil Suresh, Union minister of state for labour, have triggered a political storm in the state. Chandy has also been directly drawn into the line of fire after R. Sreedharan Nair, a businessman, alleged on July 5 that he was taken by Saritha to the chief minister's office (CMO) on July 9, 2012, where Chandy encouraged him to invest Rs 40 lakh in Biju and Saritha's fraudulent firm, Team Solar Renewable Energy Solutions.
Based on Nair's complaint against Saritha, Tenny Joppan, the Chief Minister's personal assistant, was arrested on June 28. More than 40 cases have been registered against Biju and Saritha on complaints from people across the state who said they were duped by false offers to set up solar panels or provide equity in non-existent solar and wind farms in Kerala and Tamil Nadu during 2011-13. The scam came to light after Saritha was arrested on June 3 based on a complaint by K. Sajjad, a businessman in Ernakulam district, who said he was duped of Rs 40 lakh by way of her offer to set up solar panels. "There is clear and irrefutable evidence against all the arrested," says A. Hemachandran, additional director general of police, who heads a special investigation team (SIT) constituted after Saritha's arrest.
Nair, who runs quarrying and stone-crushing units, stated in an affidavit before a first-class judicial magistrate that Saritha had taken him to CMO after he refused to pay her the third instalment of Rs 15 lakh of a total Rs 40 lakh as she and Biju did not start work on the proposed solar project even a year after he paid Rs 25 lakh. "When we met him, the Chief Minister vouched for Saritha's credentials and encouraged me to engage her to set up a solar panel at my factory in Palakkad," says Nair, who, incidentally, is a local Congress leader in Pathanamthitta district.
Even as the Opposition Left Democratic Front and BJP have gone on the offensive demanding his resignation, Chandy denies all charges though he admits Nair had met him twice. "But it was only to convey certain issues related to quarrying and had nothing to do with the solar issue," he says. Chandy says he does not remember if Saritha was with Nair and has refused to present CCTV visuals of the meeting. "There is only a live webcast from my office and no record is kept," he claims. His mentor A.K. Antony, the Union minister for defence, has hastily given a clean chit. "There will be no change in government. There is no political crisis in the state. Let the investigation continue," Antony said in Kochi on July 9.
Shalu Menon, arrested on July 5, is an actor in TV soaps and films and also on the 64-member advisory panel for the Thiruvananthapuram region of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC). She was arrested on the basis of a complaint by Rassit Ali, an NRI businessman from Thiruvananthapuram who alleged that she and Biju duped him of Rs 75 lakh by offering to set up a wind farm in Tamil Nadu. Pictures of Home Minister Radhakrishnan and Kodikkunnil Suresh attending Menon's housewarming ceremony in April appeared in the local media. "It was just another function. I attend thousands of such functions every year. I didn't know Menon but only her grandfather who was a known theatre personality," says the home minister. Union minister Suresh admits to have nominated Shalu to the CBFC advisory panel in 2012. "I did that considering her standing as a dancer and actor," says Suresh.
Shalu opened seven branches of her Jaikerala dance schools last year and built a mansion in her native Changanassery village in Kottayam this year. Her links with Biju were not secret as both used to be seen together in public often. After his arrest, Shalu told the media that she too had been cheated of Rs 20 lakh by him. But the police claim that she subsequently admitted that she was Biju's accomplice and even planned to marry him.
Meanwhile, call details of Saritha's phones have now revealed that she was in touch with more than 30 top UDF leaders, including six ministers, two Central ministers, two MPs, eight MLAs and a host of others, besides personal staff members of ministers. While most of the calls were made by Saritha, at least eight, including three by ministers, were made to her. "I called her only when I found a missed call from an unknown number," explained Home Minister Radhakrishnan. Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee President Ramesh Chennithala, who was among those Saritha called, said that being a public personality, he could not restrict anyone from calling him up.
The divorced Saritha was living with Biju after the latter allegedly killed his first wife in 2006. But Biju said after Saritha's arrest that they were estranged for long, mainly on account of her alleged illicit links with MLA K.B. Ganesh Kumar, who was forced to step down as forests minister over his wife's allegations about his illicit relations with some unidentified women.
Pressure is building on Chandy and UDF as a number of PIL cases have been filed in various courts demanding a judicial or CBI probe into the matter. The Congress high command does not appear inclined to intervene. "How can the high command intervene in this when the Central Government it leads is neck-deep in scams amounting to hundreds of times more than this?" scoffs Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, CPI(M) politburo member.