If Chief Minister Oommen Chandy does not have anything to hide in the solar scam, he should voluntarily offer to undergo a lie-detector test, Leader of the Opposition V.S Achuthanandan said here on Friday.
Inaugurating a public meeting as part of the Left Democratic Front (LDF)’s campaign demanding the resignation of Mr. Chandy for his alleged involvement in the scam, he said businessman Sreedharan Nair, who had filed a cheating case against the scam-hit company Team Solar, had stated that he gained confidence in investing in the company after meeting the Chief Minister.
The businessman had even volunteered to undergo a lie-detector test to prove his claim, Mr. Achuthanandan said.
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Mr. Nair’s assertion, Mr. Achuthanandan said, was a challenge to the Chief Minister and he should show the courage to volunteer to undergo a lie-detector test.
Reiterating the front’s demand for a judicial inquiry into the scam, he said the Chief Minister was trying to “scuttle the probe because if truth came out, he and his family would go to jail”.
Accusing the Chief Minister of providing assistance to fraudsters Saritha S. Nair and Biju Radhakrishnan, Mr. Achuthanandan said Mr. Chandy still owed an explanation to the public on the need for him to hold a meeting with Radhakrishnan.
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The Chief Minister was duty bound to explain to the public on what transpired at the meeting he had with the accused, he said.
The State was confronted with several problems, including price rise and relief to the flood-affected, but the government instead of addressing those issues was trying to wriggle out of the scam by putting the blame on Mr. Chandy’s former personal staff, Mr. Achuthanandan said.
Others who spoke at the meeting included CPI leader C. Divakaran, former Ministers N.K. Premachandran, M. Vijayakumar, CPM legislators V. Sivankutty, party district secretary Kadakampally Surendran, and State president of Janata Dal (Secular) Mathew T. Thomas.