Thiruvananthapuram: Even a week after the cabinet decided to initiate fresh probes against former chief minister Oommen Chandy and others in connection with the solar commission report, formal orders in this regard are yet to be issued. Sources said that the matter was pending with chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan. His official engagements as well as legal scrutiny were delaying the formal orders. It was on the basis of the recommendations in the Justice Sivarajan commission report on the solar scam that the state cabinet on October 11 decided to initiate fresh probes against Mr. Chandy and many of his former cabinet colleagues, MLAs, MPs and police officers on criminal and corruption charges.
It was stated earlier that the order might be issued by October 12. But the government later wanted to ensure that the order did not leave any loophole for the affected parties to challenge it before the court, especially since Mr. Chandy and others had raised strong objections over the government decision. Hence, the matter was referred to advocate- general C.P. Sudhakara Prasad for legal vetting. He gave the vetted draft of the order to the chief minister by Monday evening.
But Mr Vijayan was in Delhi on Monday and he went to Sabarimala on Tuesday. Hence the matter is still pending, sources said. The government was planning to entrust the probes into the rape case against Mr. Chandy and nine others, the alleged favours extended by many former ministers and MLAs to Team Solar and charges of destruction of evidence against IG K. Padmakumar and DySP K. Harikrishnan to the Special Investigation Team led by DGP (North-zone) Mr. Rajesh Dewan. The Vigilance cases announced by the cabinet, including the one against former power minister Aryadan Muhammed, will be entrusted with the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau.
