Bengaluru: In a development with massive implications for the Congress party in Kerala, Communist Party of India (Marxist) chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Wednesday ordered an investigation by the vigilance department against a string of leading Congressmen, including previous chief minister Oommen Chandy, as well as police officials and civil servants, citing the findings of a judicial commission on alleged wrongdoings in the installation of solar panels.

The matter refers to allegations by investors against the founders of a company that installed solar panels. The arrested founders in turn named politicians in the previous Congress-led government and others close to Chandy. The investors said they had associated with the company because of Sarita S Nair, one of the founders, flaunted her high-level connections. One said he made the decision to invest after a meeting in Chandy’s office.

Chandy had denied the allegations, but the opposition took it up and, in August, 2013, thousands laid siege to the state secretariat in the capital. The government later agreed to form a judicial commission to probe alleged wrongdoings.

On 26 September this year, the commission submitted a four-volume report, running into 1,073 pages, and its findings were disclosed in a press meet by Kerala chief minister Vijayan on Wednesday.

Vijayan said the commission has found Chandy and other Congress leaders to have received large sums as bribes from Saritha, and that they will be booked under the concerned sections of the Vigilance and Ant-Corruption Act. The commission also found that Chandy’s close aide and previous home minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan misused his powers to help save Chandy, Vijayan added, for which he too will be prosecuted under criminal charges by a special vigilance team.

Cases will be also registered against top Congress leaders including former legislator Benny Behnan, apart from high-ranking police officers and office bearers of the state police association of the time, said Vijayan. They are guilty of misusing their powers to help Chandy and even destroying evidence, he said. The government has already transferred civil servants named in the commission report to non-policing departments, he added.

The damage for the Congress doesn’t stop there.

Saritha had named 13 high-profile people in a letter written from jail in 2013, who she said either asked her for sexual favours in return for government sanction of her company’s projects or raped her. All of them will be slapped with charges of rape, sexual assault and outraging modesty of women and investigated, apart from probe on bribe charges, Vijayan said.

Out of the 13 people Saritha named, 10 are among of the who’s who of the Congress party in Kerala, including former legislators and parliamentarians.

Vijayan said the full report of the commission will be tabled in the state assembly within six months. If more evidence emerges during the course of the vigilance enquiry, they too will be investigated, he said.

In view of the malpractices suspected within the police department in this case, a judicial committee will be formed and asked to submit a report within the next six months to make policing in Kerala “strong, effective and impartial," Vijayan said.

The development has wide-ranging bearings on the Congress party in Kerala, one of the handful of states where it is strong. Faced with attacks from its principal opposition, the Communist Party of India (Marxist), it has to be seen how the party and its allies defend themselves against the findings of the commission, whose terms of reference were set by its own government. The development also comes at a time when the Congress has been considerably weakened in Kerala with the exit of allies and internal bickering.

Congress leaders have not yet commented on the findings of the commission since the full report has not been made public by the CM’s office. However, Congress’, Ramesh Chennithala, leader of the Opposition and the number two in the party, told reporters that the timing of the chief minister’s press meet makes it clear that his intentions are politically motivated. He was referring to the bypoll ongoing in Vengara assembly constituency on Wednesday. However, an official close to the CM’s office said this was a coincidence, as the office had received legal counsel on the commission’s findings only on Tuesday.

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