Salim’s arrest won’t have bearing on poll: CM Oommen Chandy

THRISSUR: The arrest of Salim Raj in connection with the Kalamassery and Kadakampally land fraud cases will not have any impact on the assembly byelection at Aruvikkara, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy told reporters here on Friday. “I have not interfered in the probe connected with Salim Raj so far and would not do so in future too,” he said.

Salim Raj, former gunman of Mr Chandy, was arrested by the CBI in connection with the land fraud cases on Wednesday. “The arrest will not have any impact on the Aruvikkara poll.

The people are aware of the truth behind all these events,” he added.

The chief minister also ridiculed CPM politburo member Pinarayi Vijayan’s claim that he was having evidence in the solar case. “If he has evidence against me, why has he kept it as a secret till now? Why is he running away with the evidence?”

If Pinarayi had such solid evidence, why he was not ready to present the same to the Solar Commission, Mr Chandy asked. “Only after the Solar Commission served a notice, Pinarayi appeared before it,” the chief minister pointed out.

The CPM leader is making false statements for the sake of saying something as he was not having any evidence to show before the commission, Mr Chandy added.

He said that he was not responsible for the erasure of the visuals of the CCTV footage of the chief minister’s office. The decision to store the footage of CCTV cameras at the chief minister’s office only up to one month was taken when the LDF was ruling the state, he said. The system was programmed in such a way that visuals got deleted automatically after one month, he added.