THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The CBI sleuths inspected Cliff House, the Kerala Chief minister's official residence, as part of evidence collection in connection with the Solar sex scandal involving former chief minister and Senior congress leader Oommen Chandy.
The two teams from the CBI led by inspector Nibul Sankar along with the woman complainant came to the Cliff House based on the allegations of sexual exploitation. The first team came to the residence around 9:30 am while the second team arrived around 10 am along with the complainant. A battalion of police were present in front of the Cliff House
It is the first time that an investigation agency conducts evidence collection at Cliff House. The team has taken permission from the General administration department earlier to conduct the evidence collection. The department has given permission as the Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and his family were not present in the official residence owing to his treatment in US.
Sources said the evidence collection is in progress. The case against Chandy was registered over the last several years and investigated by the Crime Branch of Kerala Police based on a complaint by the woman, who is also an accused in the Solar scam.
As per the complaint, she was sexually expoityed by Chandy on September 19, 2012 when she was asked to come to the Cliff House during when he was the chief minister a spart of the discussion related to Solar scam.
Last month, the CBI conducted an inspection similarly at the MLA hostel in Thiruvananthapuram. The CBI team accompanied by the complainant conducted searches at two rooms in the Nila block of the hostel, where Congress MP Hibi Eden had stayed when he was a legislator.
The complainant had alleged that the young Congress leader had raped her in his room in the MLA hostel in 2012. The sources said room numbers 33 and 34 were searched by the CBI as part of evidence collection.
The central agency took over the sexual abuse complaints registered by the woman, who was a kingpin in the infamous solar scam, against six Congress leaders last year after the state government transferred the case to the CBI at the request of the complainant.
The woman had alleged that she was raped by then Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, AICC general secretary KC Venugopal, Hibi, Adoor Prakash MP, MLA AP Anil Kumar, and former Congress leader and current BJP national vice-president A P Abdullakutty. The state Crime Branch had initially probed the case, but later the CBI took over the investigation.
The complainant had earlier turned up before the CBI sleuths to record her statements. Earlier, Justice G Sivarajan Commission too had recommended a detailed probe on the rape allegations levelled by the woman against the Congress leaders.