Chandy asks CPI-M to name IT expert to verify CCTV images

Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy Thursday constituted a committee of three members to verify the visuals caught on 24 CCTV cameras in the state secretariat, and asked the CPI-M to nominate one member.

"All these CCTVs were placed in 2009, when the Communist Party of India-M-led alliance was ruling the state. Out of these, 16 CCTVs have space enough to store visuals for 14 days; the rest have space for only eight days. But for some time, the CPI-M is spreading canards that the visuals are not being examined," Chandy said in a statement issued here.

The opposition CPI-M has been demanding the examination of the visuals to find out if Saritha S. Nair visited Chandy at his office in July last year.

Saritha Nair has been arrested in connection with the "solar scam". She had, in partnership with Biju Nair, cheated people of thousands of rupees on the promise of installing solar panels at subsidised rates.

Sreedharan Nair, a businessman, recently claimed that he had accompanied Saritha Nair during a visit to Chandy at his office July 9 last year, a charge Chandy has flatly denied.

Saritha Nair and her live-in partner Biju Radhakrishnan are behind bars after numerous investors were cheated of their money.

Sreedharan Nair has filed a petition that he too lost money, and that he had made the investment after Chandy gave him assurances about the "Team Solar" couple.