Sex and sleaze are the reigning themes of the voluminous report of the G. Sivarajan Commission on the sensational multicore solar scam of 2013 tabled in the Assembly on Thursday.
The commission has found former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy; his Cabinet colleagues Aryadan Mohammed, A.P. Anil Kumar, and Adoor Prakash; former Union Minister and sitting MP K.C. Venugopal; former Union Minister of State Palani Manickam; Jose K. Mani, MP; Congress legislators; and senior IPS officers to have received kickbacks from the Kochi-based Team Solar Renewable Energy Solutions Pvt Ltd., led by scam accused Saritha S. Nair and Biju Radhakrishnan and extracted sexual gratification from the former.
The commission has gone by the contents of a letter written to him by Saritha on July 19, 2013, which, in Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s words, amounted to finding Mr. Chandy and others prima facie guilty of having extracted sexual gratification from Saritha, besides taking huge sums as bribe from her and the company.
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The commission has rejected Mr. Chandy’s claim that he had no prior familiarity with Saritha and has pointed out that there were evidence to show telephonic contact with her from his office.
Saritha’s letter
In Saritha’s letter, which figures twice in the report, she had stated that Mr. Chandy had forced her into unnatural sex at Cliff House, the official residence of the Chief Minister, and that different leaders of the United Democratic Front (UDF), including Mr. Chandy, had taken a total sum of ₹2.16 crore as commission from her. While Mr. Chandy had collected ₹50 lakh from her through his son Chandy Oommen and his confidant Thomas Kuruvilla in New Delhi, Mr. Mohammed had taken ₹25 lakh for sanctioning renewable energy policy, besides subjecting her to sexual harassment.
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Former Tourism Minister A.P. Anil Kumar also took ₹7 lakh, acted as a go-between when the then Union Minister K.C. Venugopal subjected her to sexual exploitation at the Rose House in the capital, a five-star hotel in Kochi, and Kerala House in New Delhi. She had also named KPCC general secretary N. Subramoniyan as being among those who had sexually exploited her.
Yet another Congress politician whose name figures on the list of those who had sexually exploited her is former legislator A.P. Abdullakutty. Two top police officers whose names figure in the letter and, therefore, in the commission report are Additional Director General of Police K. Padmakumar and Inspector General of Police M.R. Ajith Kumar, both of whom have been accused of having extracted sexual gratification from her. According to the commission, Saritha’s partner Biju Radhakrishnan had walked away with ₹6 crore of Team Solar’s funds for leading a luxurious life and gifted a ₹3-crore house, two cars and gold to dancer-actor Shalu Menon. The commission had found that the persons cited by Saritha in the letter had contacts with her and her lawyer over telephone. Citing the evidence produced by her, the commission has asked the government to seriously consider invoking the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act against them.