A Chief Judicial Magistrate Court in the state capital Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala on Monday, 25 September, dismissed a plea filed by a woman against the clean chit given by the CBI to Congress MP Hibi Eden in a sexual exploitation allegation.
The woman, who is the prime accused in the sensational solar scam case, had earlier approached the court against the CBI report that cleared the name of Eden in a sexual exploitation case filed by her.
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‘Court accepted CBI report’
A lawyer, privy to details of the case, said that with the dismissal of the plea against the MP, the court had in effect accepted the CBI’s report.
The CBI had earlier submitted reports in the court exonerating four Congress leaders — AICC general secretary KC Venugopal, Lok Sabha MP Adoor Prakash, MLA AP Anil Kumar and MP Hibi Eden — who were named as accused in the sexual exploitation case filed by the woman.
Recently, the CBI also submitted a report to a magisterial court saying that it found a criminal conspiracy behind naming the late former chief minister Oommen Chandy in the solar case.
Based on that, Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly VD Satheesan had also demanded an inquiry to find out who had tried to frame Chandy in the case.
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The allegations
The cases against six people, including Oommen Chandy and BJP leader AP Abdulla Kutty, were registered over the past few years and investigated by the Crime Branch of the Kerala Police based on a complaint by the woman, an accused in the multi-crore solar panel scam during the UDF government, that she was sexually exploited by them in 2012.
The case against Kutty was registered in 2014 when he was a Congress MLA from Kannur. He later joined the BJP.
The CPI(M)-led Kerala government had recommended a CBI inquiry into the cases in January 2021, a few months ahead of the polls to the state Assembly.
In a letter to the police commissioner on 19 July, 2013, the woman had levelled charges of sexual misconduct and corruption against several Congress and UDF leaders, including Chandy, some of his ministers, and two former Union ministers.
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