Solar scam: HC to scrutinize case diary before Joppen bail decision

KOCHI: The Kerala high court will scrutinize the case diary in solar scam before pronouncing an order on the bail plea by chief minister Oommen Chandy's former personal assistant Tenny Joppan.
The direction to produce case diary was issued by Justice S S Satheesachandran while considering the bail application on Tuesday morning. Before pronouncing an order in the bail application, the case diary needs to be looked into by the court, the judge said.
Following the direction, the case diary was presented to the court on Tuesday afternoon by advocate general (AG) K P Dandapani. The AG has informed the court that Joppan had close links with Sairtha S Nair and Biju Radhakrishnan, the main accused in the case. Through these links, Joppan is suspected to have made monetary gains, the AG submitted.
Joppan had maintained contacts with Biju and Saritha knowing that they are accused in several cheating cases. It was also known that a court had issued warrant for Joppan. Police officials had warned Joppan about the criminal antecedents of Biju. However, he extended all help to Biju and Sairtha, the court has been told.
The government has also submitted that Joppan introduced Saritha to Sreedharan Nair, the complainant in the case, as Lakshmi Nair, knowing that her original name was Saritha. Saritha and Joppan used to meet even at the secretariat and Joppan used to make phone calls to Saritha and Biju frequently, government has informed. Opposing Joppan's plea, government submitted that granting bail to him now would adversely affect the investigation and that he needs to be questioned further to reveal more details of the scam.