Vijayan denies 'vendetta', says solar scam report not to be made public now

Dismissing allegations of vendetta in ordering a case against his predecessor Oommen Chandy, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday rejected the demand for making public the report of the Justice G. Sivarajan Commission in the solar scam issue saying it will be tabled in the state Assembly at the appropriate time.

"Now, we will submit the Commission report along with the action taken report in the Assembly the next time it meets. It has to be tabled within six months. If we do anything else, that will be illegal. We haven't taken any partisan decision in this subject. According to law, what a government has to do, we have done only that. The timing (of tabling the report) hasn't been decided," Vijayan told IANS.

Rejecting the charge of vendetta as has been alleged by the Congress, Vijayan said the Sivarajan Commission was set up under the Commissions of Inquiry Act by the government under Chandy. "This government didn't appoint the commission, the previous UDF government had set it up. We had to agitate a lot (when in opposition) to set up the commission," he said.

The Chief Minister said there was evidence before the Commission and it submitted the report. According to the Commissions of Inquiry Act, the government can take two decisions on the commission report. "First, submit the whole report to the Assembly or we can take action on the report and submit the action taken report to the Assembly."

"Since it was a very controversial case and it was a four-volume report, we sought legal opinion from the Advocate General and Director General of Prosecution, and according to their advice, we took actions. Now, we will submit the commission report along with the action taken report in the Assembly the next time it meets. It has to be tabled within six months," he said.

The Solar scam made headlines over four years ago with the arrest of Saritha Nair and her partner Biju Radhakrishnan, who had allegedly conned businessmen by floating their high-level connections including with Chandy, who was then the Chief Minister.

The probe decision was announced by Vijayan after the weekly cabinet meeting last week, based on the recommendations of the Solar Scam Commission report submitted by Justice (retd) G. Sivarajan in September.

A Special Investigation Team led by Director General of Police Rajesh Diwan has been set up to investigate the cases.

--IANS

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