Truth will always triumph, says Chandy after HC stays FIR order

Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy Friday said truth will always triumph and claimed all the allegations against him stem from a "deep-rooted controversy".

He was interacting with reporters at his official residence after news came that the Kerala High Court had stayed a lower court's order seeking an FIR to be registered against him and Power Minister Aryadan Mohammed in the solar scam case.

"I have always believed in my conscience and I firmly believe that if one has done no wrong, then nothing wrong can happen, but if there was a very small mistake that was committed, then for that a heavy price would have to be paid. The truth has and will always triumph," said Chandy.

Solar scam co-accused Saritha Nair on Wednesday hurled bribery allegations against Chandy, claiming she had given Rs.1.90 crore to a person called Thomas Kuruvilla to be passed to Chandy while Mohammed was given Rs.40 lakh.

Based on this revelation, activist P.D. Joseph approached the Thrissur Vigilance Court judge S.S.Vasan who on Thursday ordered an FIR to be registered against Chandy and Mohammed.

Hearing a plea by Chandy and Mohammed against Vasan's order, Kerala High Court's Justice P.Ubaid lashed out at Vasan while granting the stay, saying Vasan's deeds demand action be taken against him. In a related development, Vasan has expressed his desire to opt for voluntary retirement and put up his papers for that.

Meanwhile, Chandy, in response to a question, said that all the new revelations and the events of the past weeks are on account of a deep-rooted conspiracy and indicated this was related to the new liquor policy of his government.

"You wait for some more time, the conspiracy will come out. Now itself some clues have come out and appropriate action would be there against the conspirators," he said, adding all this has occurred because of the "bold and brave" of his government took to close down more than 700 bars in the state as part of their plan for total prohibition to be in place in the years to come.

"A section of the bar owners are upset because of this. Also did you all not hear the new revelations that has come in the solar scam case. This case has been going on for now nearly three years and the statements that are now coming out have come for the first time.

"Also Nair had revealed in the past that the CPI-M had offered her Rs.10 crore for making revelations. Till this moment, the CPI-M has not said a word against Nair's revelation of Rs 10 crores," added Chandy.

He said his son Chandy Oommen will take appropriate legal steps against Nair, who had on Friday revealed before the solar judicial commission that she and his son had business projects.

Chandy said what had happened was that it took him a while to realise that the solar project was a fraudulent one.

"Look, my style of functioning is to take quick action and due to that I know when I take quick decisions on 100 things, 10 might be wrong and once I come to know it was wrong, I immediately correct it. If otherwise I decide to seriously look into all aspects to make a decision, of the 100, I will be able to make decisions only on 10," he added.

Chandy said the UDF is meeting on Saturday and will decide on what needs to be done on the resignation letter of Excise Minister K.Babu as Justice Ubaid on Thursday stayed the Thrissur Vigilance Court verdict which ordered a case to be registered against him for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs.50 lakh from bar owner Biju Ramesh.