Ker Assembly spl session to discuss solar scam report on Nov 9

The Kerala government today decided to convene a special one-day Assembly session next month to table the report of the judicial commission on the solar scam, which had rocked the previous Congress-led UDF regime in the state, led by Oommen Chandy.
A cabinet meeting, chaired by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, resolved to recommend to Governor Justice (retd) P Sathasivam that a special session be convened on November 9 to table the solar scam probe report, an official release said.
The government also decided to seek expert legal opinion from former Kerala High Court Chief Justice Arijit Pasayat regarding further steps to be taken on the report, Vijayan said in a Facebook post.

The move comes days after the government decided to initiate a vigilance probe against Chandy, two of his cabinet colleagues and some other United Democratic Front (UDF) leaders.
It also comes in the backdrop of the demand by the opposition, the Congress-led UDF, to make public the report with Chandyseeking a copy of it to know about the "facts and findings" of the commission.
The government, after seeking legal opinion on the report submitted last month by the Justice Sivarajan Commission, had on October 11 decided to set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to further probe the multi-crore-rupee scam.

Announcing the probe, Vijayan had said a criminal case would be lodged and the SIT would look into the allegations of rape levelled by Saritha S Nair, the main accused in the scam, against certain politicians in a letter dated July 17, 2013.

Reacting to the development, Chandy claimed that seeking another legal opinion again showed that the government had gone wrongby resolving to take action based on the report in the first place.
"What is the need for a second legal opinion if the first one is correct?" he asked, adding that the government should openly admit where had it gone wrong.

The Congress leader also pointed out that the commission had submitted its report last month and the government announced its action plan, after seeking legal opinion, on October 11.
In a related development, Saritha S Nair, the main accused in the scam, today submitted a complaint to the chief minister, in which she reiterated her allegations.
Sources in the chief minister's office said the complaint had been forwarded to Director General of Police (DGP) Loknath Behra for further action.
Besides Chandy, the government had also ordered a probe against former ministers Aryadan Mohamed and Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan after lodging a case against them.

The commission was appointed by the previous Chandy-led UDF government after allegations surfaced that Team Solar, a company floated by Nair and Biju Radhakrishnan, duped several people of crores of rupees by offering solar panel solutions to them.
The charge against Radhakrishnan, who was the home and vigilance minister in the Chandy cabinet, was that he had tried to protect the former chief minister and "illegally" used the police officers under him to "influence" the case.
According to the commission, a vigilance case should also be registered against former power minister Mohammed as he had allegedly helped Team Solar "illegally".

Some Congress ministers, MPs and MLAs were named by Nair in a letter she wrote when she was in jail in connection with the scam.