Solar Scam: Kerala to convene Special Assembly session on Nov 9 to table commission report

A cabinet meeting held on Thursday, October 19, has decided to convene a Special Assembly session on November 9 to table the Judicial Commission report that probed the sensational Team Solar Energy Company (Team Solar) scam.

The government has also decided to seek legal advice from former Supreme Court Judge Justice Arijit Pasayat. Earlier, the Congress-led UDF had demanded that the report of Justice G Sivarajan Commission be made public. This follows Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's order that Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau would probe former CM Oommen Chandy based on the findings of the report.

A similar probe was also ordered against the team that investigated the scam. The Congress-led UDF has come in support of Chandy and demanded that the report is made public. Chandy had also written to Pinarayi Vijayan to be given a copy of the report through an RTI application. However, both the demands of the opposition have been turned down by the LDF-government.

On Wednesday, the chairman of the UDF and Leader of Opposition, Ramesh Chennithala, had put forth the demand to table the report in the Special Assembly. He had also alleged that the state government was engaging in a witch-hunt by registering cases against ministers of the previous government in the guise of commission reports.

While the opposition has rushed in to defend its leaders adversely mentioned in the scam report claiming that they have been kept in the dark on the findings, CPI-M state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan on Wednesday warned that these leaders will be forced to cover their face and walk if the findings of the report are made public.

The political temperature in Kerala has gone a notch higher after the CM ordered the probe on the basis of Sivarajan Commission whose findings adversely implicate senior Congress leaders and the team that probed the matter.

The incident that came to light in 2013 involved a fraudulent solar energy company in the state that used political contacts running through to the offices of Oommen Chandy, then CM, and duped several influential people of funds to the tune of crores of rupees.

Team Solar directors Sarith S Nair and her partner Biju Radhakrishnan received advance payments by purporting to make business partners, or in the guise of installing alternate sources of energy, collected huge payments from prominent people in the state only to renege on their promises.