Heat on Chandy over aide8217;s links with 8216;con woman8217;

Last November,two government employees at Chandy's office had faced corruption charges.

Chief Minister Oommen Chandy,who webcasts his office 24215;7 as a token of his transparent functioning,has found himself in an embarrassing situation with the opposition alleging links between his personal assistant and a woman who has been arrested on charges of swindling crores from several investors.

The allegation was raised in the assembly by the CPM on Wednesday after party-backed Kairali TV reported the call details between Chandys assistant Tenni Joppen and Saritha S Nair,who was arrested last week on charges of cheating.

Joppen is considered to be Chandys shadow. The Chief Minister,who does not have personal cellphone,uses his number whenever they are together. Otherwise,Chandy depends on the cellphones of other personal assistants.

According to the call details reported by Kairali TV,Nair,who had allegedly cheated 50-odd investors promising to make them partners in wind mill and solar power stations in Tamil Nadu,and Joppen had exchanged 68 calls/SMSes for a week before she was arrested. Besides,her mobile had six calls from landline numbers at Chandys official residence. Nair was using a cellphone availed in the name of an auto driver in Kochi,where she had an office.

Opposition leader V S Achuthanandan said the call details revealed that Chandy had tried to intervene in the case. Chandy sho-uld explain his links with the woman who had cheated several persons. He was secretly trying to cover up the case, he said.

Although the CPM leader demanded that Chief Minister should make a statement in the assembly on the issue,Chandy resorted to evade the issue. Later,after the Cabinet briefing,Chandy told the media that someone might have exploited his office,where there is no restriction. The allegations are serious. If anyone has misused my office,action would be taken against him, said Chandy.

Last November,two last grade government employees at Chandys office had faced corruption charges. They were caught on camera allegedly taking bribe. After they were shunted out of the CMs office,an official release had said the action was for dereliction of duty.