THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Crime Branch team that probed the allegations of rape and sexual abuse filed by the solar scam accused woman against Congress stalwart Oommen Chandy has intimated the CBI, which is probing the case now, that it could not gather any evidence against the leader during the course of its investigation.
The Crime Branch in its proforma report submitted to the central agency said it had failed to unearth any evidence against Chandy, giving the veteran leader a huge relief in the run-up to the assembly polls. It is learnt that the Crime Branch has given similar reports on AICC general secretary K C Venugopal, Congress MPs Hibi Eden and Adoor Prakash, former minister A P Anil Kumar and BJP national vice-president A P Abdullakutty.
“All aspects and facts mentioned by the petitioner in her statement and the complaints were verified. Evidence to corroborate the alleged offence could not be obtained so far,” the report read. One of the reasons for not being able to substantiate the allegations raised by the woman was that the call detail records (CDRs) of Chandy’s mobile phone could not be retrieved as the offence had allegedly occurred seven years ago. “It’s informed by the service providers that the CDRs are not available with them since more than seven years have elapsed,” the report said.
‘Crime Branch failed to unearth evidence’
Highly-placed police sources said the report could not be termed as a clean chit for Chandy. “The proforma report is filed by state agencies when the central agencies take over the case. The Crime Branch in its report had said they were yet to find any evidence to link Chandy with the alleged offence and that report is not the conclusion. It is now up to the CBI that’s probing the case to unearth the evidence against Chandy, if any,” a source added.
Sources told TNIE that it was not just Chandy who got a breather. Trusted sources said a similar proforma report has been filed on Venugopal indicating that no evidence was found that he had committed the offence. The reports on Hibi Eden, Adoor Prakash, Anil Kumar and Abdullakutty also reportedly carry similar remarks, suggesting that the Crime Branch in its probe had failed to collect evidence against them. The state government had handed over six cases to the CBI based on the woman’s request this January.
“Since the service providers share CDRs of phones for only up to a year, it was not possible to collect any cyber forensic evidence to even suggest that the accused were present at the alleged crime spot. The cases were registered several years after the offence allegedly took place,” said an officer, who was part of the probe, on the condition of anonymity.