OOMMEN Chandy has become the first chief minister in the history of Kerala to depose before a judicial commission in connection with a scam. On January 25, Chandy spent almost the entire day -- 14 hours -- in a government guest house in state capital Thiruvananthapuram answering queries by the Justice Sivarajan Commission regarding his meetings with the main accused in the multi-crore solar panel scam, Saritha Nair and Biju Rdhakrishnan, the role of government agencies in promoting the business interests of the accused, and his sons’ alleged links with the duo among others.

In his deposition before the Justice Sivarajan Commission, the chief minister denied the charges that he and his officials had any role in the scandal and argued that the state had not incurred any loss in the scam. The CPI(M)-led LDF had launched a massive agitation demanding Chandy's resignation as the scam took a political turn after it emerged that at least two staff members of the Chief Minister's Office -- Tenny Joppen and Jikkumon – had links with Saritha.

The chief minister refused to undergo polygraph test. “What is the need for that,” Chandy told the Commission.

The chief minister admitted that he had met Saritha, the prime accused, thrice. But he argued that he never met Saritha, along with Sreedharan Nair, a stone-crushing unit owner who made the first complaint in the case. He said that he or his office had not helped the fraudulent solar energy company Team Solar, founded by Saritha and co-accused Biju Radhakrishnan. He claimed that his statement in the Legislative Assembly on his meeting with Saritha was wrong. The chief minister also did not deny the statement of Tenny Joppen that Saritha had donated a huge amount to the Chief Minister’s fund. Chandy said he had met Radhakrishnan only once but it was to discuss a personal issue which he did not want to disclose before the Commission.

The government had appointed retired High Court Judge Sivarajan as the one-man commission on October 23, 2013 to probe the scam. The solar scam pertains to cheating of several persons worth crores of rupees by Saritha and Radhakrishnan by offering solar panel solutions. The duo allegedly canvassed business by using high-level names including that of Chandy. While Saritha was granted bail after remaining behind bars for nearly nine months, Radhakrishnan is still in jail.