CBI gives clean chit to former Kerala CM Oommen Chandy in sexual exploitation case

The complainant had alleged that Chandy had abused her at the chief minister’s official residence. The central agency, in its report in the court, said there was no evidence to substantiate the presence of Chandy at the chief minister’s official residence on the day the woman mentioned in her complaint.

Last year, the CBI had examined the official residence, Cliff House, along with the complainant. But no evidence emerged to suggest that Chandy was at the residence on the day the alleged exploitation took place, sources said.

In August 2021, the CBI had registered cases against Chandy and other Congress leaders, including K C Venugopal, Lok Sabha MPs Hibi Eden and Adoor Prakash, MLA A P Anil Kumar, and BJP national vice president A P Abdullakutty, who had been with Congress when the alleged incident took place in 2012. Earlier, the CBI had given a clean chit to all five.

The sexual allegation against the leaders emerged as an offshoot of the solar scandal, in which a con woman and her partner had cheated several people by promising them solar power solutions and partnerships in solar energy projects. The issue had rocked the UDF regime in 2013 after it was revealed that three personal staff members of then chief minister Chandy were involved in the cheating case.

The government had ordered a judicial probe into the scam. The previous LDF regime, based on the recommendation of the judicial commission, had allowed the police to register rape cases against the Congress leaders. Kerala Congress (M) leader Jose K Mani’s name had also cropped up in the scandal.

As the Crime Branch probe did not make any headway, the complainant in 2020 wrote a letter to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan asking that the case be handed over to the CBI. In her complaint to Vijayan, the woman had dropped Jose K Mani’s name. Mani’s party had then joined hands with the LDF. Based on the complainant’s letter, Vijayan recommended a CBI probe.

Reacting to the CBI closure report on the sexual allegations against the Congress leaders, senior party legislator and Opposition leader V D Satheesan told media that Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan should tender an apology to the leaders falsely implicated in the case.

Satheesan said Vijayan wanted to insult the Congress leaders and their families. “Vijayan recommended the CBI probe only to insult the party leaders. Now, the woman in the gold smuggling case has raised allegations against chief minister Vijayan and his family. Why can’t that allegation be recommended for a CBI probe?” he asked.