Kerala orders probe against veteran Cong leader Aryadan in Solar Scam

Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala government on Wednesday decided to carry out an investigation against senior Congress leader Aryadan Muhammed in a graft allegation charge raised by Solar case accused Saritha S Nair.

Vigilance and the anti-corruption bureau has completed a preliminary investigation into the allegation of Saritha that Aryadan had received Rs 40 lakh as a bribe from her by promising avenues and opportunities for setting up solar power units.

However, Aryadan being the former minister, vigilance was in need of government clearance and approval from the state governor.

Saritha Nair, one of the keys accused in the 2014 solar scam had rocked the then Oommen Chandy-led Congress government and led to a massive campaign by Vijayan, ending in the rout of the Congress-led UDF in the 2016 Assembly polls.

Nair's petition accused Mohammed, the then state Electricity Minister, of misusing his official capacity and taking Rs 4 million as a bribe. The issue was taken up by Vijayan and since Mohammed is a former Minister, sanction for the probe has to be obtained from the Governor.

Incidentally, this fresh case comes soon after the CBI registered cases against Chandy, Congress General Secretary K.C. Venugopal and party MPs Hibi Eden, and Adoor Prakash, party state legislator A.P. Anilkumar and BJP national Vice President A.P.Abdulla Kutty on a complaint by Nair that she was sexually exploited by these leaders.

Like in the present case against Mohammed, Nair had raised a complaint with Vijayan, who handed over it to the CBI.

Nair and her then live-in partner went around selling solar schemes and collected money from several people but cheated on them. After her links with a few office staff of Chandy surfaced, it became the biggest campaign issue of the Left.

Incidentally, a few months back, Nair was jailed in another cheating case registered against her.