Sexual harassment case against Congress MLA to 'cool down' heat of solar scam: Saritha Nair

Kochi: Saritha S Nair, prime accused in the sensational solar panel scam, Monday alleged it was at the insistence of a senior Congress leader close to Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy that she filed a sexual harassment case against party MLA A P Abdullakutty to "cool down" the heat generated by the scam.

Deposing before a judicial commission probing the scam, Saritha claimed Congress leader Thampanoor Ravi had insisted her to file the sexual harassment case against Abdullakutty in March 2014 after she secured bail in cases related to the scam.

She also produced audio CDs containing her purported conversation with Ravi and Congress MLA Benny Behanan in which they were allegedly discussing the rape case.

Both Ravi and Behanan are senior leaders of "A" faction of the Congress headed by Chandy.

Abdullakutty had won from Kannur constituency in the 2011 Assembly polls after he was expelled from the CPI(M) for praising Narendra Modi's Gujarat development model.

While Behanan strongly rejected the charges after television channels today telecast the audio CDs, an emotional Abdullakkutty said no enemy should undergo such a situation.

He said he was innocent and truth would come out one day.

Saritha told the commission that after she was released from jail, former minister Ganesh Kumar's PA came to meet her and said Thampanoor Ravi was on line.

"He (Ravi) told me to tell something to cool down solar case," she told the Commission adding, "Ravi reminded me of my grouse against Abdullakutty."

He asked me to file a complaint before the DGP or with a woman police station otherwise the solar scam issue will not cool down.

"He telephoned my advocate Fenny Balakrishnan when we were going to file the complaint and told me that everything had been discussed with the DGP and insisted me to file the complaint with the women police station," Saritha said.

"Following this, I got a notice to give a CrPc sec 164 statement before the Thriuvananthapuram Judicial First Class Judicial Magistrate court. And I gave 164 statement.

"After I got another notice from Thiruvananthapuram police commissioner office, I informed Ravi about this and he suddenly changed his stand. He spoke to me through my advocate's phone and asked me to quash (withdraw) the FIR...," she added.

Saritha also alleged that on many occasions both Benny Behanan and Thampanoor Ravi had insisted her to file cases and speak to media about the difficulties she faced during her career in Team Solar.

She added that they told her "all these are done based on the instructions of the Chief Minister."