Achuthanandan asked me to find letter against Chandy in sexual assault case: middleman

The CBI, which probed the case, submitted a report before a court last year exonerating Chandy and stating that the rape allegations were part of a conspiracy hatched against him by certain individual

Controversial broker TG Nandakumar, who played a key role in the sexual assault case connected to the solar scam that rocked the UDF government between 2013 and 2016 in Kerala, said on Wednesday that it was former chief minister and CPI(M) leader VS Achuthanandan who asked him to retrieve the letter written by the complainant in jail and that he discussed the letter with the then CPI(M) state secretary and now CM Pinarayi Vijayan as well.

Controversial middleman TG Nandakumar claimed that former chief minister VS Achuthanandan asked him to investigate and retrieve the letter written by the complainant against Oommen Chandy. (PTI)

CPI(M) leaders did not respond to requests for a comment on the allegation.

The main accused in the solar scam had alleged that late former CM Oommen Chandy had sexually assaulted her at his official residence in Thiruvananthapuram. But CBI, which probed the case, submitted a report before a court in December last year exonerating Chandy and stating that the rape allegations were part of a conspiracy hatched against him.

Nandakumar, who the Congress-led UDF alleged that he paid the complainant ₹50 lakh in exchange for a fake letter containing the allegations, dismissed those charges at a press conference in Kochi.

“It was former chief minister VS Achuthanandan who asked me to investigate and retrieve the letter written by the complainant against Chandy. On the basis of that, I contacted Sharanya Manoj by phone who had the letter in his custody. He came to Ernakulam and gave me a bunch of documents including a 25-page letter which had the name of Chandy on the first page. I showed it to Achuthanandan who read it. I also held discussions about the letter with then CPM state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan,” said Nandakumar.

“I then contacted a private news channel and gave the letter to its reporter. I asked him to verify the details of the letter with the complainant before airing it,” he said. The middleman, considered close to former CM Achuthanandan, admitted he met Vijayan around four times before the 2016 assembly polls in which the LDF under Vijayan was voted to power.

Congress leader Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan said, “I do not wish to comment on his allegations. I have been hearing such jokes for a long time.”