Thiruvananthapuram: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s statement in the Assembly on Thursday that the government would invoke the relevant criminal laws and the Prevention of Corruption Act against politicians and government officials and police offices implicated by the solar judicial commission marks a subtle, yet significant step back from the earlier position adopted by the LDF government.
On October 11, briefing the media after a Cabinet meeting, Mr. Vijayan had announced that the Vigilance would file cases against former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, three members of his personal staff and Cabinet colleagues Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan and Aryadan Mohammed who were found guilty of abetting Team Solar in its attempt to swindle customers. He had said criminal cases would be filed against all the persons mentioned in the complaint of sexual harassment filed by Saritha S.Nair, the prime accused in the scam.
The Chief Minister had promised that senior police officers K.Padmakumar and K.Harikrishnan and former MLAs Thampanoor Ravi and Benny Behnan would also face a criminal case on the charge of trying to scuttle the investigation and shield the guilty. All the wrongdoers would also face a detailed investigation, he had added.
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The State Cabinet had adopted this position in October after seeking legal advice from the Advocate General and Director General of Prosecution.
However, addressing the Assembly on Thursday, the Chief Minister was silent on filing criminal cases against the wrongdoers identified by the commission, though he reiterated his promise to institute an inquiry into the charges against them under the Criminal Procedure Code??, Indian Penal Code and Prevention of Corruption Act. Mr.Vijayan said the government had subsequently sought legal advice from former judge of the Supreme Court Arijit Passayat before finalising the follow- up action on the recommendations of the judicial commission.
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