Kerala opposition again demands Chandy's exit

Thiruvananthapuram, July 23: The opposition CPI-M in Kerala Tuesday again sought Chief Minister Oommen Chandy's resignation claiming that the high court had made adverse remarks against him, but Chandy and the prosecution department denied such a development in court.

At a series of press conferences here, Leader of Opposition V.S. Achuthanandan said it was a shame that Chandy was hanging on despite severe adverse comments from the high court.

The Left opposition brass was also seen on TV channels asking Chandy to quit at the earliest.

Many TV channels also aired news claiming that the high court had made serious remarks against Chandy in two separate cases.

One case that the TV channels cited related to a bail plea of actress Shalu Menon, who was identified as part of the solar scam case -- linked to an alleged fraud by a woman and her male associate who promised to provide several investors solar panels at subsidised rates.

According to the channels, the high court bench while hearing the bail plea passed adverse remarks against the government and the investigating officer in the solar scam case and also said that the government was trying to hide things.

The second case in which the state government allegedly faced court heat related to a plea filed by M.K. Kuruvilla demanding a crime branch probe in a cheating incident where he was allegedly duped by two people, one of whom claimed to be a relative of Chandy and another a staff member in his office.

Chandy told reporters that the director general of prosecution and the advocate general had told him that what was being aired on TV channels was baseless.

"Please try to understand the responses made by court in the two cases that came up and, if you wish, please come back... I will respond," said Chandy.

Director General of Prosecution T. Asif Ali, who had appeared in the high court, said there has been not a single reference made in the two courts against the state government or the chief minister.

"The court judges said that the state needs to enact a new law to tackle cheating cases and never did they make any adverse comment on the state government," said Ali.

Communist Party of India-Marxist state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan also addressed a press conference and said that never had such a thing happened in the past that on the same day two courts had slammed the chief minister.

"The court said in clear terms that the role of Chandy has to be probed. In the past, we have seen a chief minister (K. Karunakaran) step down when a court made a remark against him. Chandy also can follow suit and need not wait till the judgment," said Vijayan.

Chandy has been facing the opposition's attack over the Solar scam.

The Kerala government has ordered a probe into the dealings of Saritha S. Nair and her live-in partner Biju Radhakrishnan, who are currently under arrest for having defrauded several investors on the promise of providing solar panels at subsidised rates. The telephone call records of Saritha Nair showed that she had been in frequent touch with members of the chief minister's personal staff.

While one member of the chief minister's staff has been arrested in this connection, two others have been sacked.

IANS