The State police on Monday said it would examine if any documents had been tampered with at the police station level to include the name of Chief Minister Oommen Chandy in a complaint lodged by a businessman, Sreedharan Nair, against the alleged financial fraudsters Saritha S. Nair and her business associate, Biju Radhakrishnan.
Investigators said the suspected tampering was noticed in the complaint Mr. Nair had lodged in a court in Kottayam in June under Section 156(3) of the Criminal Procedure Code.
Subsequently, the magistrate ordered the police station concerned to register a first information report against the suspects and investigate the alleged offence.
The court sent a copy of the compliant to the local police.
The alleged tampering was noticed in the copy of the complaint received by the police and not in any of the statements Mr. Nair had recently given to the special team investigating the financial frauds related to Team Solar, officials said.
(Mr. Nair had told presspersons in Kottayam that the inclusion of the Chief Minister’s name in the complaint was without his knowledge or consent. Home Minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan reacted to the news by stating that the allegation was serious and the police would inquire into it.)
The police were of the view that if the complaint was altered while it was in the custody of the court, then it was for the judiciary to order an inquiry into the matter.
However, it would seek the expertise of the documents division of the Forensic Sciences Laboratory to find out if the suspected tampering was a recent act.
Last week, the police had arraigned Mr. Chandy’s long-time aide and former personal staff member Tenny Joppan as an accused in the cheating case.
The police case against him was that he aided Saritha Nair and Biju Radhakrishnan to defraud Mr. Nair of Rs 40 lakh.
Mr. Nair had stated in his petition that he and Sarita had met Joppan in the Chief Minister’s office early this year and that they had prompted him to invest in a “State-backed” Rs. 40-crore project to harvest solar energy on an industrial scale. His meeting with Jopan had allegedly prompted him to make the investment.