The G. Sivarajan Commission inquiring into the solar scam on Wednesday tentatively formulated a list of witnesses, which included Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, Forest Minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan, and Government Chief Whip P.C. George, to be examined during the inquiry.
The other witnesses who would be examined include five MLAs and three MPs who had allegedly got in touch with the prime accused, Saritha S. Nair, over her mobile phone. The Chief Minister and the Forest Minister were likely to be examined at the fag end of the proceedings.
Charges against CMThe commission had earlier made it clear that the allegations levelled against Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, his office and personal staff, and former Home Minister and present Forest Minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan were the subject matter of inquiry. The commission had observed that the allegation was that the Chief Minister, his office, his personal assistants, his former security officer Salim Raj, close party workers and his aide in New Delhi, Thomas Kuruvila, were all parties to the solar scam deals of the prime accused, Saritha Nair and Biju Radhakrishnan, and “rendered all help to them for cheating their solar scam customers in one way or the other.”
Though Tenny Joppan, an office staff of the Chief Minister’s office, was made an accused in a case, the Special Investigation Team had “purposely excluded the Chief Minister’s personal staff, his personal security office and his aide in Delhi from the list of accused through dubious methods.”
The commission had passed the order as these allegations had not been specifically set out in the form of a statement along with the notification.
