What has put the scam back in spotlight is the questioning of Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, a week back, by the special investigation team (SIT) probing the solar cases.

The sensational disclosure came through a submission made by State Advocate General K P Dandapani to the Kerala High Court when a petition seeking an order to seize the computer disk and the servers of the CCTV cameras installed at the Chief Minister’s Office, came up for hearing.

The CM’s questioning came in connection with a complaint made by businessman, Sreedharan Nair with the Konni police station in Kerala against the prime accused Saritha S Nair, who duped him of lakhs by promising to install solar panels for him. Hundreds of others had also been cheated by the fraudster couple, Saritha and her former live-in partner Biju Radhakrishnan.

The seizure of the hard disks and the servers of the CCTV cameras was essential to prove Nair’s meeting with Oommen Chandy at his office. The CM had been claiming that it is impossible to retrieve the CCTV footage of his office, which is at odds with the AG’s submission in the court. The AG has told the court that the hard disk has been sent for scientific examination, and the images could be restored even if they were erased.

Significantly, the petitioner’s counsel had argued that the SIT was not retrieving the data from the seized disk as it was bent upon destroying evidence.

A statement made by Sreedharan Nair under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure had mentioned his visit to the CM’s office on July 9, 2012. The examination of the CCTV footage was necessary to verify whether he had met the CM at his office in the company of Saritha. Of course, the CM has denied meeting Sreedharan Nair with Saritha. But he has admitted having met Sreedharan Nair as part of a delegation of quarry owners.

Incidentally, Nair and Saritha had signed an agreement on installation of solar panels on June 25, 2012 and the reported meeting with the CM took place on July 9, 2012. To a question by the court on the significance of the meeting with the CM after the deal had been clinched, Nair’s counsel said Oommen Chandy had promised full support to the project and the cheques issued to Saritha were encashed only after his assurance.

Despite his best efforts not to name the Chief Minister, the AG was forced to reveal the name as the court repeatedly asked him to specify the name. All that the AG, who was obviously trying to save the CM, said before yielding to the court’s insistence was that “a person responsible for the meeting was questioned”! (IPA)