Kerala Crime Branch Police registers cases against former CM Oommen Chandy, Venugopal
Thiruvananthapuram, Oct 21: The Crime Branch of the Kerala Police has registered cases against former chief minister Oommen Chandy and MP K C Venugopal, on a complaint of sexual misconduct filed by Solar scam accused Saritha S Nair.
Confirming the development, Director General of Police (DGP) Loknath Behera said the cases against the two leaders were lodged on the basis of a complaint from Nair.
"Let the law take its own course," he told reporters here.
A Special Investigation Team (SIT), headed by Superintendent of Police (SP) Abdul Karim, was constituted to probe the cases, the DGP added.
Reacting to the development, Chandy said they were prepared to face the cases legally.
He claimed the cases were "politically motivated".
By lodging the cases now, the attempt of the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) government in the state was to deflect the attention of the people from the Sabarimala issue, Chandy told reporters.
Nair has alleged in her complaint that Chandy had sexually exploited her at Cliff House, the official residence of the chief minister, in 2012, while Venugopal had raped her at Rose House, the residence of then state minister A P Anil Kumar.
The previous United Democratic Front (UDF) government had formed the G Sivarajan Commission when the allegations against Nair and Biju Radhakrishnan that they had duped several people of crores of rupees by offering them solar panel solutions had surfaced
The 1,073-page, four-volume report of the commission, tabled in the state Assembly on November 9 last year, had found that Chandy and four of his personal staff -- Tenny Joppan, Jikkumon Jacon, gunman Salim Raj and Kuruvilla, his aid in Delhi, -- had "assisted" Nair and her company, Team Solar, in enabling them to cheat their customers.
The report also contained details of the controversial letter written by Nair on July 19, 2013 to the police commissioner, in which she had levelled charges of sexual misconduct and corruption against various Congress and UDF leaders, including Chandy, some of his ministers and two former Union ministers.
The Kerala High Court had in May expunged the Solar Commission's findings against Chandy based on Nair's letter, while partly allowing a petition filed by the Congress leader, seeking to quash the panel's findings against him.
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7 held for running fake call centre in South Kolkata
Kolkata (PTI): Seven people were arrested from the Parnashree area in the southern part of the city for allegedly running a fake call centre, a police officer said on Saturday.
Acting on a tip-off, police raided a house on Netaji Subhas Road on Friday night and found the fake call centre operating from the ground floor, he said.
Preliminary investigation revealed that the accused had set up a bogus company using forged documents and posed as employees of an antivirus firm to call citizens in the US, the officer said.
"The callers would gain the trust of victims and then use remote access to take control of their phones or other digital devices. The accused allegedly siphoned off large sums of money, running into millions of dollars, from victims' accounts," he said.
Five laptops, two WiFi routers, six mobile phones and four headsets were seized from the accused, he said, adding that the seven are being questioned to ascertain the full extent of the racket and to identify others involved.
