Thiruvananthapuram, May 14 (IANS): A ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) legislator was questioned by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Saturday in the alleged solar scam sex scandal case.
The CBI has asked the LDF legislator, K.B. Ganesh Kumar's personal secretary, Pradeep Kumar and his relative Sharanya Manoj to appear before them.
The questioning of Kumar comes close on the heels of the CBI questioning Congress MP Hibi Eden in Kochi on Friday.
The CBI in August 2021 had registered cases against two-time former Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, Congress General Secretary K.C. Venugopal and Congress Lok Sabha members Hibi Eden, Adoor Prakash, Congress legislator A.P. Anil Kumar and BJP National Vice-President A.P. Abdullakutty.
The cases were registered on a complaint filed by the the solar scam case accused saying that she was sexually exploited by all the leaders against whom the CBI had registered cases.
The accused woman had raised the complaint with Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who handed the case over to the CBI, just before the April 2021 Assembly elections.
She filed the complaint after the Kerala Police probe got nowhere even after several years.
The CBI has filed three cases in the Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) court in Thiruvananthapuram and one case at the CJM court in Kochi.
Eyebrows have been raised on why Kumar was asked to appear and the reason according to sources was that the CPI (M) leader's close relative Sharanya Manoj had earlier said the former was the mastermind behind the solar scam sex case.
Kumar and Manoj are not on good terms with each other.
The solar scam case led to the collapse of the Oommen Chandy government as the nexus between the accused woman and a few people from Chandy's office was exposed, which the Left Democratic Front raised during their election campaign in 2016.
The accused woman and her live-in partner, Biju Radhakrishnan were allegedly found selling solar schemes and collecting money from several people by duping them.
Her links with a few office staff of Chandy surfaced which became a major poll campaign issue for the then opposition LDF.
This was one reason why the Congress-led UDF government, which was eying a second term in power in 2016, suffered a rout.