Leader of the Opposition V.S. Achuthanandan has criticised what he termed a joint attempt by persons in the executive and the judiciary to scuttle the ‘solar scam’ case.
In a statement here on Sunday, Mr. Achuthanandan said the role being played by certain persons in the judiciary and those in the executive to subvert the case should be brought to light in the larger interests of democracy. From the very early days of the scandal, the Opposition Left Democratic Front (LDF) had alleged both within and outside the Assembly that attempts were on to scuttle the case. Events during the subsequent days and disclosures over the past few days had proved this fear to be true.
Ernakulam Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate N.V. Raju had told the High Court Registrar (Vigilance) that she had been raped. The law enacted recently by Parliament stipulated that a case should be registered even if a woman subjected to rape complained about it orally. The Magistrate should have ordered an investigation into the complaint then and there. He did not do so. Worse, he did not even record her statement. This was most unconvincing. This was why certain quarters came up with the allegation that he had actually recorded the statement and later torn it up.
