Saritha Nair, one of the main accused in the solar panel scam, having first dragged Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy into the case, yesterday claimed that his son Chandy Oommen was closely involved in the scandal.
Nair made the disclosure on the third day of her deposition before the solar judicial commission. She claimed she had met the chief minister many times and not just thrice as mentioned by Oommen Chandy before the commission.
Nair said there was a photograph of her at a function in Kottayam where she met the chief minister. “On that day I was talking about a new company to be formed by his son Chandy Oommen. The chief minister had agreed to this,” she claimed.
Nair had on Thursday alleged that she gave Rs19mn in bribes to the chief minister in two instalments through a person called Thomas Kuruvilla, based in Delhi.
Yesterday, she added that Oommen Chandy’s son was always available on Kuruvilla’s mobile phone when they discussed the solar panel business and the formation of a new company to import solar panels.
Nair also said there had been speculation about a relationship between her and Chandy Oommen. However, Nair said the person in question was not her but another woman who was linked to the company.
Nair said that chief minster’s son had even made trips with the woman to the Middle East.
She claimed that evidence pertaining to the relationship between Chandy Oomen and the woman was in the possession of the state Minister for Forests Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan.
Nair informed the commission she would not comment on rumours involving her and top political leaders - that surfaced when the scam first came to light -  as these involved her privacy.
When Nair asked the commission permission to leave stating she had some urgent work to attend to, the government’s counsel objected stating she was in a hurry to brief the media and put the government in more trouble by airing baseless allegations.
However, the commission allowed her permission to leave and asked her to return on Monday and Tuesday for further deposition.
Earlier Chief Minister Oommen Chandy claimed  the allegations against him stem from a “deep-rooted controversy” and said “truth will always triumph”
He was interacting with reporters at his official residence after news the Kerala High Court had stayed a lower court’s order seeking charges be registered against him and Power Minister Aryadan Mohamed in the scam.
“I have always believed in my conscience and I firmly believe that if one has done no wrong, then nothing wrong can happen. But if there is even a very small mistake committed, then for that a heavy price would have to be paid. The truth has and will always triumph,” he said.
The chief minister claimed that Nair’s new revelations and the events of the past weeks were a deep-rooted conspiracy and indicated this was related to his government’s new liquor policy.
“You wait for some more time, the conspiracy will be exposed. Appropriate action will be taken against the conspirators,” he said, adding his government’s decision to close down more than 700 bars in the state as part of their plan for total prohibition had resulted in ‘the plot’.
“Nair had revealed in the past that the CPI-M (Communist Party of India - Marxist) had offered her Rs100mn to make damaging revelations. Till this moment, the CPI-M has not said a word against Saritha’s revelation,” the chief minister pointed out.