India
The CBI has accused the former chief minister Oommen Chandy of having committed a sexual act judged by law as unnatural on Sarita in promoting her dubious business.
Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala’s crime branch police confirmed late on Saturday (October 20) that they have filed a criminal case against former chief minister Oommen Chandy on suspicion of sexual assault on solar energy investment fraud case accused Sarita Nair in his residence at Cliff house in Thiruvananthapuram back in 2013.
The FIR has been filed against Oommen Chandy on Saturday (October 20) in the court of the chief judicial magistrate, Thiruvananthapuram. The CBI has accused the former chief minister Chandy of having committed a sexual act judged by law as unnatural on Sarita in promoting her dubious business. The FIR is yet to surface in the public domain, and its facts are mostly secret as of now.
The complaint was registered by Sarita to the CBI recently, where she alleged that she had gone to meet Chandy in person to seek his political support to woo private investment for her solar energy projects. Sarita also said some members of the chief minister's staff had facilitated the interview. She alleged that Chandy had sought and received sexual favours from her to promote her business.
The high-profile Sivarajan commission that consequently probed the solar scam had found back in September 2017 that the top members of the officials had received sexual favours from Sarita to promote her business.
The commission also noticed that sexual favours could be defined as illegal gratification as described in the Prevention of Corruption Act. The Commission suggested that the government investigate all persons named by Sarita as her exploiters.
Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan submitted a 1,073-page report by G Sivarajan on September 26 at a convened Assembly session amidst rancorous protests from the Congress-led opposition. At a press conference, he ordered the registration of cases against those whom Sarita alleged had taken sexual advantage of her. Sarita has named a galaxy of democratic front leaders as her exploiters.
In May 2018, the Kerala High Court had cancelled the solar commission's observations against the former chief minister Oommen Chandy based on a letter, which was allegedly written by Sarita, when the police arrested her on fraud charges back in 2013.
However, Sarita approached the police in 2017 with specific complaints against Chandy and other Congress leader KC Venugopal. She also defenestrated in front of a magistrate on her own against both the Congress leaders under section 164 CrPC.
The commission had described them as the ruinous link between the chief minister’s office and the alleged fraudsters, Sarita along with her associate, Biju Radhakrishnan. The police arrested Joppan on suspicion of having helped the suspects cheat an investor of Rs 40 lakh.
The commission had also observed that the accused had even cleverly hidden their criminal past to gain access to the chief minister's office by personally advancing some of the staff members and a few senior police officials. The commission had examined cell phones and other documents collected by the police as part of the probe.
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