Newsmaker | Actor, ex-minister, former Cong ally at the heart of Oommen Chandy fake charges row

Two weeks back, a magistrate court in Thiruvananthapuram accepted a closure report by the CBI saying it had found no substance in the allegation that Chandy had sexually abused a woman who was facing charges in the solar scandal dating back to his time in office as CM.

The CBI report also hinted at a political conspiracy behind the allegations against Chandy, and made several mentions of Ganesh Kumar, who has been a minister under previous UDF governments, and his aides.

A five-time legislator and chairman of the Kerala Congress (B), Kumar is known to have been close to the accused woman.

The Kerala Congress (B) is a splinter group of the regional Kerala Congress party, which Kumar’s father R Balakrishna Pillai established and of which he is the lone MLA. Of the many splinter groups of the largely Christian Kerala Congress party, Pillai’s was the only upper caste Hindu one.

The CBI report submitted recently said the woman, a divorcee, first met Kumar, then an MLA, in 2009. “She fell in love with him. She used to meet him at his residence in Thiruvananthapuram. In 2009, she got pregnant and based on an assurance from Ganesh’s mother, she decided to continue the pregnancy,’’ said the report.

While in judicial custody in another cheating case, she gave birth, as per the CBI.

The report further said that in 2011, which was a few months after the UDF led by Chandy came to power, Kumar’s private secretary Pradeep Kumar fixed an appointment for her to meet Chandy to discuss solar energy projects.

According to the CBI, towards the end of 2012, the woman’s live-in partner Biju Radhakrishnan met Chandy in private to discuss minister Kumar’s relationship with her. The details of that meeting remain unknown, with Chandy refusing to reveal the same even during the height of the protests against him.

In April 2013, Kumar was forced to quit as minister after his wife filed an FIR against him for domestic violence. She also said Kumar himself had been manhandled by the “husband” of the solar scam accused woman at his official residence as minister.

A month after Kumar quit, the solar scandal surfaced, with the woman he was involved with accused of cheating investors promising them solar energy solutions, allegedly in connivance with members of the CMO. One of the cheated investors filed the complaint.

The CBI report said that when she was produced in court in connection with the case, she contacted Kumar’s secretary Pradeep, and that Kumar’s father Pillai, who was aware of their relationship, helped her out.

According to the agency, when the woman was released on bail after several months, Kumar again came to her rescue, and a relative of his, Manoj, hosted her for four months at his house. It was from Manoj’s house that the woman is alleged to have made calls to various political leaders, blackmailing them.

After the CBI submitted its report last week, the woman claimed that Kumar had kept her in illegal custody. “Let Ganesh reveal why he had kept me at his relative’s house,” she told the media, adding that if the truth came out, a lot of people would lose face.

The Congress believes the fact that the woman’s original letter to court after her arrest in June 2013 made no mention of Chandy or the sexual abuse charges, showed Kumar’s hand in the conspiracy to fix the late leader.

The controversy Kumar finds himself in is rare. After a proven track record as an actor, he also had a head-start in politics. In 2001, soon after winning his debut Assembly election, he became transport minister in the UDF government led by A K Antony, and was credited with giving the state public transport entity a major facelift.

In 2003, he stepped down to facilitate the entry of his father Pillai into the cabinet. For the next decade, he remained an MLA, had an active film career, and courtesy the captive elephants held by his family, became the president of state elephant owners’ association.

With the voting in of the UDF government in 2011, Kumar again became a minister. But, after his exit from the UDF Cabinet in 2013 in the wake of his wife’s allegations, followed soon after by the solar scandal, the Kerala Congress (B) got estranged from the Congress.

In 2015, Kumar made several allegations against the UDF government over the National Games held in Kerala.

A year later, ahead of the Assembly elections, the Kerala Congress (B) became a partner of the LDF.

The controversy may have put paid to reported plans of the Pinarayi Vijayan-led LDF government to induct Kumar as minister in November – as per an LDF arrangement with its four allies with 1 MLA.

Kumar has brushed off the controversy. Last week, replying to the Congress claims that he was behind the allegations against Chandy, he told the Assembly: “I had no personal enmity towards Chandy. I quit his Cabinet in 2013 due to personal reasons. From 2013 till now, I have not contacted this woman directly or indirectly.”

Kumar said he was “not a person who lives with pseudo morality”. “My life is open and my stand is very clear. I was sacked from the UDF when I spoke against corruption.”