Solar commission report: Special Investigation Team complained of panel's bias
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Members of the Special Investigation Team that probed the solar scam had informed the State Police Chief last year that they were being accused by the Sivarajan commission of making adverse remarks in the report and that the commission seemed to be acting with prejudice or misunderstanding. Six officers of the commission had sent a strongly worded letter to the then state police chief T. P. Senkumar in January 2016, citing the adverse instances they faced.
“We have over 20 years of experience and faced cross examinations by many senior criminal lawyers at the courts of eminent judges. We regret to say that we never experienced such approach of threats and humiliation with prejudice or misunderstanding,” said the letter written by DySPs K. Sudarshan, V. Ajith, B. Prasannan Nair, Reji Jacob, Jaison K. Abraham and K Harikrishnan. While Prasannan Nair has already retired from service, the other five officers are among those shifted now on the basis of the Commission's report. All of them are of SP rank now.
In the letter dated January 12, 2016, a copy of which is with DC, the officers alleged that on several occasions, the Commission threatened them that adverse remarks would be made against them in the Commission report when they failed to give explanations on the lines of the Commission's expectations. “We were asked loaded questions with multiple points and there was an insistence of a ‘Yes’ or ‘No’. The Commission expressed discomfort and anger when we tried to explain the facts. Even Prasannan Nair, who was appreciated by the court while convicting the accused in a solar case, faced such an approach from the Commission,” they said.
The officers also said in the letter that the Commission criticised Reji Jacob and Jaison Abraham for recording the statements of many prominent persons like former union minister Farooq Abdullah, whose names were misused by the accused to cheat them. “The Commission even said that he would teach us how to investigate cases. The Commission said: ‘You kick open the door and say to Farooq Abdullah that I am an investigation officer, I want to record your statement,’. The accused even misused the name of the Prime Minister and hence it was unwanted to record the statement of all such persons as part of the crime inquiry,” said the officers.
In another instance, the Commission served a notice to DySP Harikrishnan for recording a witness statement. But just ahead of collecting the statement, the DySP was served the notice as one facing a charge. Such action will put any witness under pressure, said the letter. The officers also termed that the Commission’s queries on paternity of the accused’s children were unwanted as it had no connection with the cases it was probing. It stooped to the level of the moral police, said the letter.
