Solar scam accused Saritha S. Nair, along with the Kozhencherry-based Mount Zion Trust chairman K.J. Abraham Kalamannil, had visited Chief Minister Oommen Chandy twice in an attempt to resolve certain issues between Mr. Kalamannil and KGS Aranmula Airport Limited, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) State general secretary K. Surendran has alleged.
The BJP leader was addressing a meet-the-press at the Pathanamthitta Press Club on Wednesday.
According to the BJP leader, Mr. Kalamannil sold his land at Aranmula to the airport company for Rs.52 crore and the company paid him only Rs.22 crore in cash. The company promised to allot its shares to Mr. Kalamannil for the remaining amount, besides the chairmanship of the company. Later, Mr. Kalamannil moved court against the company alleging that it had failed to keep its promise.
The BJP leader alleged that Saritha had intervened in the case as a mediator with the ‘help’ of the Chief Minister and had even demanded Rs.5 crore for her ‘mediation.’
Mr. Surendran said Government Chief Whip P.C. George was aware of all these things and he should make it public. The BJP leader said he was ready to end his public life if these charges were found baseless. He alleged that call details showed that Saritha had contacted airport company official P.T. Nandakumar on the phone several times.
The BJP leader alleged that the police investigation into the solar scam appeared to have been more or less paralysed for the past three weeks, following the arrest of Tenny Joppan, a former member of the Chief Minister’s personal staff, and actor Shalu Menon. He alleged that the special investigation team led by Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) A. Hemachandran was trying to wind up the investigation with the arrest of Joppan, Saritha, and Shalu in a desperate attempt to protect the ‘big sharks’ involved in the scam.
The investigation agency is yet to find out the source of money involved in the scam. A pen drive of Shalu is reportedly missing and the Home Minister himself has confided that two important CDs that are crucial in the investigation have been missing.
