In a major twist to the solar scam case, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) on Wednesday submitted before the Kerala High Court that it questioned Chief Minister Oommen Chandy in connection with the complaint lodged by Konni-based businessman Sreedharan Nair with the Konni police station.
Advocate-General K P Dandapani made the submission on a petition filed by Joy Kaitharath of Thrissur seeking a directive to seize the computer hard discs and servers of the CCTV cameras installed at the Secretariat and Chief Minister’s office to prove Nair’s meeting with Chandy along with prime accused Saritha S Nair.
Though Dandapani tried his best not to name the Chief Minister, he had to later reveal it at the court’s insistence. In a bid to save Chandy, the Advocate-General said “the person responsible for the meeting was questioned”. However, with the court repeatedly asking to specify the name of the person, he replied it was the Chief Minister.
Pointing out that Nair never raised allegation against Chandy, the court asked why then a statement was taken from the Chief Minister. Counsel for the petitioner Ranjith Thampan submitted that such observation on Chandy was unwarranted as the investigation was in progress.
Nair, in his statement under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code, had mentioned his visit to the Chief Minster’s Office. To prove this the CCTV visuals should be examined, his counsel demanded.
The Advocate-General submitted that the hard disc of the server computer and CCTV visuals were seized on September 28 by the SIT and they were handed over to the Forensic Science Laboratory to retrieve the data. He made it clear that the visuals recorded on July 9, 2012 had also been included in the data. Nair’s advocate submitted that Chandy promised support for the project.