Saritha Nair says Chief Minister Oommen Chandy sought a 1.9 crore bribe through aides
Saritha Nair, who has displayed the potential to imperil the Kerala government ahead of elections, today unpacked new allegations of corruption against Chief Minister Oomen Chandy.
Ms Nair, accused of conning an array of industrialists in what has been dubbed
"the solar scam", professed that she has "never been offered" a bribe by the opposition Left in exchange for entangling Mr Chandy in accusations of a key role in the alleged swindle that was predicated on cheaply-priced solar panels and clean energy initiatives that were sold but never delivered by Ms Nair and her partner, Biju Radhakrishnan.
Ms Nair, 36, for the past few days has been testifying for a retired high court judge. The Chief Minister, who has pronounced her version of events as "baseless" was questioned by the same judge for 11 hours last week.
In media interviews two years ago, Ms Nair had claimed that the Left had offered her
"up to 10 crores" to implicate the Chief Minister. Her revision of that statement is evidence of the fluidity of her allegations, which have wrapped around various political parties before encircling the Chief Minister.
As part of her evidence against the Chief Minister, who she says sought a 1.9 crore bribe through aides, Ms Nair has produced audio tapes of conversations with senior Congress leaders in which they are reportedly heard coaching and urging her to protect Mr Chandy and his aides, including a gunman.
Since the scandal erupted in 2013, Mr Chandy has suspended three close associates in his office whose frequent interactions with Ms Nair and her partner were established. Ms Nair has, however, declared that she has solid evidence of the Chief Minister's own venality, including material that proves he wanted her to go into business with his son.
On Friday, the Kerala High Court over-ruled a lower court order that had called for a police case or FIR against the Chief Minister, offering the politician and his party some relief.