I never feared outcome of 'baseless' sexual assault case: Oommen Chandy

Thiruvananthapuram, Dec 28 (IANS) Reacting to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) giving him a clean chit in the alleged sexual assault case filed by the solar scam accused, former Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said on Wednesday that he never ever feared the outcome of the probe.

An elated Chandy, who's presently undergoing treatment for throat cancer in Bengaluru, said that he was confident about the outcome of the CBI probe and ridiculed his political rival, present Chief Minister Pinaryani Vijayan, for vehemently denying CBI probe when those close to CPI-M were accused of murder.

Chandy said that he and all the others who were accused strongly believed that there was no substance in the allegations and hence there was no fear.

"There was a time when we were advised that it would be better if we sought anticipatory bail as the Kerala Police might arrest us given the serious nature of the allegations. But we said we will not seek bail as we didn't do any wrong, and if they want, let the police arrest us," said Chandy.

"We were surprised when the Pinarayi Vijayan government, after receiving a complaint on a white paper sought a CBI probe into the matter without even looking at the two different Kerala Police probes into the same allegations. We felt there were ulterior motives. And this handing over the probe to the CBI by the Vijayan government came at a time when he himself was vehemently opposing a CBI investigation into two different murder cases, in which the accused were close to the CPI-M. And to do this, expensive lawyers were hired," said Chandy.

Chandy added that his public life has always been like an open book, and till date he has done nothing which went against his conscience.

The cases were registered based on a complaint filed by the solar scam accused, who had alleged that she was sexually exploited by a few Congress leaders.

She had lodged a complaint with Vijayan, who handed over the probe to the CBI, just before the 2021 Assembly elections.

She was reportedly not happy with the Kerala Police probe, which after several years failed to reach any conclusion.

In August last year, the CBI had registered cases against Chandy, Venugopal, Congress Lok Sabha members Hibi Eden, Adoor Prakash, Congress legislator A.P. Anilkumar and BJP national vice-president A.P. Abdulla Kutty.

Now all these leaders have been given a clean chit by the CBI.

Incidentally, it was this 'victim' who was the main reason that led to fall of the Oommen Chandy-led Congress government, as scams involving her and a few members of Chandy's office got exposed, which the Left used widely during their election campaign in 2016.

She and her then live-in partner had cheated several people by selling solar schemes and collecting money. Her links with a few office staff of Chandy surfaced which became the biggest campaign issue for the Left.

Chandy's treatment is currently for which he is expected to be in Bengaluru for a few more weeks.