Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on Friday said he had decided to ‘keep out’ from his personal staff Tenny Joppan and Salimraj in connection with the phone call controversy.
Countering attacks in the Assembly for the “liaison” his office had been maintaining with Saritha S. Nair, who is now in police custody for cases involving financial deception in the name of a non-existent solar power venture, the Chief Minister said Mr. Joppan and Mr. Salimraj would be kept out of his office so that there would be no doubt about the credibility of the inquiry he had announced earlier.
These two staff members had exchanged phone calls/messages with the woman.
He said he had received from the police an interim report, which recommended a detailed investigation into all aspects of the telephone controversy after keeping these two members of his personal staff out of his office.