Sexual abuse case against former Kerala CM Chandy: CBI conducts inspection

The CBI team which has been probing the sexual harassment case against five Congress leaders, including former chief Minister Oommen Chandy, on Tuesday conducted an inspection at the Cliff House, the official residence of the Kerala chief minister, in search of evidence.

State Congress leaders, including Chandy, are accused of sexually abusing the prime woman accused in the solar panel scam. The team reached the Cliff House after taking special permission from the state government, sources said.

Television channels aired visuals of the CBI team inspecting Cliff House where the survivor had alleged that she was abused by the senior Congress leader when he was the Chief Minister. Last month, the team had conducted an inspection at the MLA hostel, where some former Congress legislators had allegedly abused the survivor.

Sources said the complainant woman was also with the CBI team which conducted the inspection. The Left government had last year recommended a CBI probe into the sexual harassment case filed by a woman accused in the solar scam against five Congress leaders-Chandy, party MPs– K C Venugopal, Hibi Eden, Adoor Prakash, former minister A P Anil Kumar and A P Abdulla Kutty, who was earlier in the Congress and is now in the BJP camp.

Chandy has maintained that he has not done any wrong and was prepared to face any probe. The cases against the six, including Chandy, were registered over the past several years and investigated by the Crime Branch police on a complaint by the woman accused in the multi-crore solar panel scam during the previous UDF government that she was sexually exploited by them in 2012. In the solar scam, two main accused, a man and a woman, allegedly duped investors of lakhs of rupees after promising to install solar panels for them. The two primary suspects were arrested in October 2013, and sentenced to three years in jail on December 16, 2016.

Chandy and other Congress leaders were later accused of demanding money and sexual favours as part of the scam.