Oommen Chandy | Photo: Mathrubhumi
Kottayam: Senior Congress leader Oommen Chandy here on Wednesday expressed happiness over CBI’s clean chit to him in the sexual abuse case related to the 2013 solar scam. The former Chief Minister took to his Facebook page and welcomed the CBI’s move.
"My public life has always been an open book before the people. I have done nothing against my conscience. I have not tried to hide anything from people," Chandy noted in his reaction.
He also took the opportunity to take a dig at the Left government.
“I was surprised that the Left government which spent crores to avert CBI probe in Periya and Mattannur Shuhaib murder cases roped in CBI for a probe in solar case,” he pointed out.
“It would be good for everyone to think at least now whether it was right to cast doubt on those in public service and brand them as tainted by making baseless charges, he added.
He pointed out that the left government’s decision to hand over of the case to the central agency without even seeking a police report and examining a crime branch report must be questioned.
“ It is still not known whether the Pinarayi Vijayan government ordered the CBI probe as they had no faith in the investigation by the State police,” he added.
The former CM, who is also a senior MLA in the State Assembly, recalled the legal advice which he had received to seek anticipatory bail in the solar scam when the Crime Branch was proceeding to register a case.
"But me and my colleagues, listed as accused in the case, rejected the legal advice. Our decision was to fight if we were arrested by implicating in a false case," he said. The government might have backtracked from their decision later out of fear that the move would backfire, Chandy added.
BJP leader and Central Haj Committee Chairman A P Abdullakutty, who was also given the clean chit by the CBI in the sexual exploitation complaint filed by the woman, said he has nothing new to react in the wake of the present development other than the sentence he had said during the time of the controversy. "The truth prevailed in the end...it is a relief," the former Congress leader said in an emotional Facebook post. The case against Abdullakutty had been registered in 2014 when he was a Congress MLA from Kannur. He later joined BJP. "I swore in the name of my two children that I had never even seen the complainant in my life....this was my response then and I have not bothered to explain anything on the matter till date after that...now the truth has triumphed...that is a relief," he said.
He also explained in detail the ordeal he and his family had suffered when the sexual charges were levelled against him for the first time. The former legislator said he and his wife had decided to shift to Mangaluru as their school-going daughter complained about the embarrassment she suffered from her classmates due to the media reports regarding the case nearly a decade ago. The cases against the six persons, including Chandy, were registered over the last few years and investigated by the Crime Branch of the Kerala Police based on a complaint by the woman, an accused in the multi-crore solar panel scam during the UDF government, that she was sexually exploited by them in 2012.
The CPM-led Kerala government had recommended a CBI inquiry into the cases in January, 2021, months ahead of the polls to the State Assembly. The opposition Congress had dubbed the move as "politically motivated", saying the LDF government could not find anything against the party leaders and took the decision as elections were around the corner.
With PTI inputs
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