Was never a stranger to Oommen Chandy, had freedom to visit his house anytime: Saritha Nair

Thiruvananthapuram: Saritha Nair, one of the main accused in solar panel scam, has reiterated that she was very close to Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and was a frequent visitor to his residence, a report said on Saturday.

Speaking to 'The Indian Express', Saritha, having dragged Chandy into the solar scam case, dismissed the CM's claims that he met her only thrice saying, she was never a stranger to him or his family and had the freedom to visit his residence anytime.

Notably, appearing before a judicial panel probing the solar scam, Chandy had claimed that he had met Saritha S Nair only three times.

Saritha further claimed that in 2012, she many times visited Chandy's ailing wife.

As per Saritha's claims she was personally invited by the Kerala CM for the Easter morning of 2013. However, she couldn't meet Chandy as he had also assigned her some other work.

While disposing before the Solar Judicial commission last month, Saritha alleged that she gave Rs 1.90 crore in bribes to the chief minister in two instalments through a person called Thomas Kuruvilla, based in Delhi.

Saritha Nair maintained Kerala CM's son Chandy Oommen was also closely involved in the scam.

She also claimed there were speculations about a relationship between her and Chandy Oommen. But she was not the woman mentioned in that story, but another one who was involved in the solar company.

Saritha said that chief minster's son had made trips with the other woman to the Middle East.

She then said all the evidence of the relationship between Chandy Oomen and the other woman is in the custody of state Minister for Forests Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan.