THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The CBI on Tuesday quizzed BJP national vice president A P Abdullakutty in connection with the probe of a rape complaint filed by a woman entrepreneur, who is an accused in the solar scam.
The scam relates to a solar company that created political contacts with links including to the Chief Minister's office and cheated many by seeking investments with the promise of making them business partners or offering to install solar power units.
The BJP leader was grilled by the sleuths at the CBI office in Thiruvananthapuram for about three hours, the sources said. The questioning started from 9 am and went on till 12, the sources added.
The woman entrepreneur had alleged that she was raped by Abdullakutty, while he was a Congress legislator, in 2013. She had alleged that the episode took place in a reputed hotel in the capital city.
Apart from Abdullakutty, the woman had also levelled rape allegations against Congress leaders Oommen Chandy, K C Venugopal, MPs Adoor Prakash, and Hibi Eden, and MLA A P Anil Kumar.
The CBI had earlier recorded the statements of Prakash and Venugopal in Delhi and Anil Kumar in Malappuram. The CM's official residence Cliff House was examined earlier this year as Oommen Chandy was the CM when the alleged incident took place. The rooms at the MLA Hostel, which were used by Hibi Eden when he was an MLA, were also examined by the CBI sleuths for collecting evidence.
Sources later revealed that no evidence could be found against Chandy and Hibi.
It was the Crime Branch that initially probed the rape cases. However, they failed to make any headway in the investigation even after conducting a probe for four years. It was prior to the 2021 Assembly polls that the Pinarayi Vijayan-led LDF government handed over the probe to the CBI. The Congress party had alleged that handing over the case to CBI was a political stunt.