My public life has always been an open book before people, says Chandy

After being exonerated by the CBI in a sexual exploitation allegation levelled by a prime accused woman in the sensational solar scam, former Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on Wednesday said at no point was he worried about the outcome of the investigation as he always had the good faith that truth could not be concealed.

In a statement here, Chandy, who is currently undergoing treatment at a private hospital in Bengaluru due to some ailments, said he had no objection against any agency probing the solar scam.

''My public life has always been an open book before the people. I have done nothing against my conscience. I have not tried to hide anything from people,'' Chandy said in his reaction to the clean chit given to him by the CBI in the sexual exploitation allegation levelled by the accused woman.

It would be good for everyone to think at least now whether it was right to cast doubt on those in public service and brand them as tainted by making baseless charges, he said.

Criticising the Left government, the senior Congress leader said its motive behind handing over of the case to the central agency without even seeking a police report and not examining a crime branch report in this regard is questionable.

He said it was still not known whether the Pinarayi Vijayan government ordered the CBI probe as they had no faith in the investigation by the State police.

The former CM, who is also a senior MLA in the State Assembly, recalled the legal advice which he had received to seek anticipatory bail on the occasion of the Crime Branch proceeding to register a case, under the pressure of the government, in the solar case years ago.

''But, me and my colleagues, listed as accused in the case, rejected the legal advice. Our decision was to fight if we were arrested by implicating in a false case,'' he said.

The government might have backtracked from their decision later out of fear that the move would backfire, Chandy added.

BJP leader and Central Haj Committee Chairman A P Abdullakutty, who was also given the clean chit by the CBI in the sexual exploitation complaint filed by the woman, said he has nothing new to react in the wake of the present development other than the sentence he had said during the time of the controversy.

''The truth prevailed in the end...it is a relief,'' the former Congress leader said in an emotional Facebook post.

The case against Abdullakutty had been registered in 2014 when he was a Congress MLA from Kannur. He later joined BJP.

''I swore in the name of my two children that I had never even seen the complainant in my life....this was my response then and I have not bothered to explain anything on the matter till date after that...now the truth has triumphed...that is a relief,'' he said.

He also explained in detail the ordeal he and his family had suffered when the sexual charges were levelled against him for the first time.

The former legislator said he and his wife had decided to shift to Mangaluru as their school-going daughter complained about the embarrassment she suffered from her classmates due to the media reports regarding the case nearly a decade ago.

The cases against the six persons, including Chandy, were registered over the last few years and investigated by the Crime Branch of the Kerala Police based on a complaint by the woman, an accused in the multi-crore solar panel scam during the UDF government, that she was sexually exploited by them in 2012.

The CPI(M)-led Kerala government had recommended a CBI inquiry into the cases in January, 2021, months ahead of the polls to the State Assembly.

The opposition Congress had dubbed the move as ''politically motivated'', saying the LDF government could not find anything against the party leaders and took the decision as elections were around the corner.