Kerala CM deposes for 14 hours
Kerala CM deposes for 14 hours
Kerala chief minister Oommen Chandy deposed before the judicial commission probing the solar panel scam for 14 hours and it went on past midnight during which he asserted there was no need for him to undergo lie-detector test as he has done “nothing wrong”.
Mr Chandy, who is the first chief minister in Kerala to appear before a judicial commission, told the commission that the charges against him and his office were “politically motivated”.
“What is the need for that (lie detector test). I have not done anything wrong. None has doubts that I have done anything wrong,” he said to a query during cross-examination.
Mr Chandy’s deposition went on for 14 hours after it commenced at 11 am Monday and concluded at 1 am Tuesday, an official said.
Mr Chandy made a similar remark on the lie detector test to reporters outside the government guest house.
He told the commission that the charges against him and his office were “politically motivated”.
Opposition leader V.S. Achuthanandan hit out at Mr Chandy, alleging he had not spoken the truth before the commission.
“If he had spoken the truth, why was he not ready to take the polygraph test,” he told reporters at Thiruvananthapuram.
The commission was on its final stage of evidence taking on the scam that broke out in 2013 and caused a huge embarrassment to the Congress-led UDF government.
The Kochi-based commission held the sitting at government guest house here to enable Mr Chandy depose as per his earlier request. Rejecting charges that he and his office had helped Team Solar Company that committed the fraud, Mr Chandy had said that after the scam broke out, the government had taken steps to bring the alleged “fraudsters” before the law.
