Home Minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan has accused the previous Left Democratic Front (LDF) government of having gone slow on the cases filed against solar firm scam accused Biju Radhakrishnan during its tenure.
The Minister told reporters here on Tuesday that a number of cases were filed against Biju in various police stations. These included a complaint filed by K. Devarajan, a resident of Charumodu in Alappuzha district, before the then Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan alleging that Biju had cheated him, claiming to be very close to the Minister. Biju had taken him to the then Minister’s office and talked to his private secretary to convince him.
The Minister said it was only after the United Democratic Front came to power that the government probed the murder case against Biju and arrested him. There was laxity on the part of the LDF government in taking action against him. By continuously disrupting Assembly proceedings, the Opposition was trying to impede the smooth progress of the investigation in the case. This had always been the stance of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) on such cases, including the T.P. Chandrasekharan murder case. CPI(M) workers had attacked the police and the court. There was an attempt to shield vested interests.
The Opposition had alleged that the stun grenades used to disperse agitators before the Assembly complex on Monday had hazardous chemicals, the Minister said adding that these were procured during the tenure of Mr. Balakrishnan as Home Minister.
He accused the agitators of inviting police intervention by turning violent. Though Biju had met Chief Minister Oommen Chandy when he was a murder accused, the meeting did not provide him any benefit. The probe into the solar scam was progressing in the right direction without any external interference, he said.
