Thiruvananthapuram: Former Kerala chief minister Oommen Chandy and his Congress party colleague K.C. Venugopal have been slapped with sexual abuse charges, with the state police filing a first information report (FIR) on the matter.
The allegation was made by Saritha S. Nair, a prime accused in Kerala’s 2013 solar panels scam, in which she is alleged to have duped several people by offering them handsome returns on investments in solar and wind power projects.
The case had rocked the state in the last two years of the Congress government headed by Chandy, and political observers believe that the solar scam was one of the key reasons for his government being toppled in the assembly elections in 2016.
According to the FIR, Chandy sexually abused Nair at the Cliff House, the chief minister’s official residence, in 2012, and Venugopal abused her in one of the ministerial residences in the state capital.
Chandy denied the allegation. Speaking to mediapersons on Sunday, the former chief minister said: “The Sabarimala issue is burning and the government is trying to divert attention from that. But they (the government) will not succeed in their objective.
“This has happened before also and now this fresh development has surfaced because of the issues in Sabarimala. I will deal with this case legally and tomorrow (Monday) in the state capital, I will reveal more details,” Chandy said here.
In Thiruvananthapuram on Sunday, Kerala Police chief Loknath Behera told the media that a new FIR has been registered and a special team had been constituted to probe Nair’s complaint. “Now, let the law takes its course,” said Behera.
Based on the FIR, the police will have to conduct an investigation and take a statement from Nair, the complainant.
Chandy and Venugopal are both All India Congress Committee general secretaries. Chandy was recently put in charge of Andhra Pradesh.
