Fenni Balakrishnan offered car to unseat Chandy'

Kochi: Fenny Balakrishnan, former counsel of solar scam accused Saritha Nair, on Thursday told the solar commission that former minister K.B. Ganesh Kumar was behind the conspiracy linking Chief Minister Oommen Chandy with an allegation of sexual misbehaviour with Ms Nair. The letter written by Ms Nair while she was in police custody did not mention the chief minister’s name, he said.

“The letter currently in circulation claiming to be the original one written by Ms Saritha is a fake one,” he told reporters after deposing before the commission. He said Mr Ganesh Kumar, his personal secretary P.A. Pradeep Kumar and relative Manoj were behind the conspiracy to drag the name of Mr. Chandy in the sexual harassment case.

Mr Balakrishnan said Mr Ganesh Kumar had sought his support for bringing down Mr. Chandy but he refused to do so. “Pradeep Kumar sought my help in person on March 9. Later, Ganesh called me on phone and said the same,” he said, adding he was promised of a car by Mr Pradeep Kumar.

During the deposition of Mr Balakrishnan, Justice G. Sivarajan told government counsel not to force the witness to tell more lies. “The government has appointed the commission to find out the truth and the government has the responsibility of helping the commission in this regard,” he observed when counsel Roy Thomas questioned Mr Balakrishnan about the circumstance under which the letter appeared in the media.

The commission also chided Mr Balakrishnan for changing his statements in the past. The commission pointed out that he had called Congress leader Benny Behanan 150 times and still claimed that he did not know his telephone number.

The commission also questioned the claim of Mr Balakrishnan that he is a member of the CPM by pointing out that he had told the commission in October 2015 that he was member of the Congress for the past two-and-half years.