The disclosure by Advocate General K P Dandapani in the HC that the Chief Minister was questioned in connection with the Solar case has once again put Chandy in a politically sticky wicket with Opposition reiterating their demand for his resignation. Demanding that Chandy should step down, Opposition Leader V S Achuthanandan said that he should be made the first accused in the Solar case.
“Chandy is the first accused in the case and before the people catch him, he should step down from the CM’s post. He misled the public by his statements and, to take the judicial probe in the right direction, he should resign from the CM’s post,’’ he said. CPI state secretary Pannian Raveendran said that based on the revelation of the AG in the High Court that the Chief Minister was questioned in connection with the Solar scam by the Special Investigation Team, Chandy had lost all moral grounds to continue. Though the Special Investigation Team led by ADGP A Hemachandran remained tight lipped about the case’s proceedings in the court, the AG’s disclosure that CCTV clippings of the Chief Minister’s Office had been sent to the forensic lab for examination had turned the tables against Chandy. ‘’With the revelation of the AG, all that Chandy said in his defence had proved to be completely false,’’ the CPI state secretary said. Meanwhile, reacting to the questioning of Chandy, Congress leaders P C Chacko and K Muraleedharan said that there was nothing wrong in the investigating team questioning him in connection with a case. “An investigating team probing a case can question anybody. None, including the Chief Minister, is above the law and it is not for the first time that senior leaders are being questioned. There is no need for Chandy to resign based on the AG’s disclosure,’’ Chacko said. KC(M) leader and Government Chief Whip P C George said that the decision of the Special Investigation Team to question Chandy was a “wisdom that came late.’’