Leader of the Opposition V.S. Achuthanandan has sought an investigation by the Kerala High Court into the Ernakulam Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate’s (CJM) decision not to allow ‘solar scam’ accused Saritha S. Nair’s request to make a statement about the scam. Mr. Achuthanandan told a news conference here on Sunday that the High Court should take a serious view of the ‘attempt at subversion keeping the court in the foreground’ and initiate special investigation into the entire issue.
He alleged that the attempt to subvert Saritha’s move to make a written statement began after the Additional CJM heard her for 20 minutes immediately after she expressed the desire to make such a statement. The police, he said, had facilitated the subversion by gaining custody of Saritha and delaying recording of her statement.
Contending that the High Court’s intervention was to prevent delay in recording the statement, the Opposition Leader said the delay in doing so went against the spirit of the High Court directive. The Magistrate’s statement that Saritha did not tell him anything was even more serious. Why was the Magistrate saying so after having instructed the lawyer not to divulge the contents of Saritha’s statement till she gave it in writing? Saritha had already handed over a 20-page note to the lawyer. The court should immediately incorporate it as a court document. The decision to record Saritha’s statement through the police and jailer would not help bring out the truth. The present developments would place the court also under a cloud, Mr. Achuthanandan said.
He demanded to know if the court was convinced about any wrongdoing to instruct that the lawyer should be kept out of the statement recording process. Alleging that the UDF leaders were out on damage control ever since reports suggested that Saritha would reveal some UDF leaders’ names, He demanded an investigation into the roles played by Benny Behanan, MLA, Anto Antony, MP, and his brother, and Kerala Congress (B) chairman R. Balakrishna Pillai in the entire affair.
