Kochi: Former chief minister V.S. Achuthanandan suffered a setback on Wednesday when the Kerala High Court dismissed his petition for a CBI probe into the what is known as the solar scam. Dismissing Achuthanandan’s petition, the court said that a judicial probe into the case is underway and hence a CBI probe is not required. Last month, Achuthanandan had suffered another setback when the Supreme Court refused to make Chief Minister Chandy an accused in the palmolein import case, as demanded by Achuthanandan in his petition.
The Rs.7 crore Solar Scam had rocked the Chandy government after it was found that three of his staffers maintained links with Saritha Nair, a key accused in the case. The staffers were sacked ater the scam surfaced in June 2013. Nair, along with her live-in partner Biju Radhakrishnan, has been accused of cheating many investors by promising to supply them solar panels worth millions of rupees. While Nair is out on bail, Radhakrishnan is yet to get bail. The case has been used by the Left opposition to target Chandy.
Justice (retd) G. Sivarajan, was appointed by the Kerala government to probe the Solar scam. Last week Achuthanandan and other Left opposition leaders testified before the commission. Chandy, a few of his cabinet colleagues and two party MPs also figure on the list of witnesses in the case.
