The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has given a clean chit to former Kerala chief minister Oommen Chandy in the sexual exploitation case related to a sensational solar scandal that had rocked the previous Congress -led UDF government in 2013.

The CBI has found no evidence to prove the sexual assault allegations levelled by woman against Chandy.

In his reaction to the clean chit given to him by the CBI, Ommen Chandy said that at no point of time, he was concerned about the outcome of the investigation.

In a Facebook post on Wednesday,  Oommen Chandy said that his public life was an open book to the people and  he always had the good faith that truth would ultimately prevail.

The CBI, in its report to the Chief Judicial Magistrate court Thiruvananthapuram, said that there was no evidence to prove the charges levelled against Oommen Chandy.

The report added that there were discrepancies in the complainant’s statements.

The complainant had alleged that she was sexually assaulted by Oommen Chandy at the Cliff House, the official residence of the chief minister. However, the investigating agency found that the former CM was not present at the Cliff House on the day.

BJP’s national vice-president AP Abdullakutty, another accused in the case, has also been given a clean chit. With this, the CBI has found all accused innocent in the case registered in 2013.

The CBI had earlier given a clean chit to other Congress leaders, such as AICC General Secretary K C Venugopal, Hybi Edem MP, Adoor Prakash, MP and former minister AP Anil Kumar on similar allegations of the woman. In all the cases, the CBI concluded that there was no evidential support for the sexual assault allegations levelled by the woman.

The complainant woman, who was earlier arraigned in a slew of cheating cases, had levelled rape and sexual harassment complaints against Oommen Chandy, AICC general secretary K C Venugopal, former minister A P Anil Kumar, Congress MPs Hibi Eden,Adoor Prakash, and BJP national vice-president A P Abdullakutty, then a Congress leader.

The case was first probed by the Crime Branch, which registered FIRs against the accused. On 24 Februar 2021, the state government handed over the cases to the CBI. The Crime Branch had also given a report to the state government saying that they could not find any evidence to implicate Chandy in the case.

Responding to the development, Leader of the Opposition VD Satheesan demanded that chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan should apologise to Oommen Chandy and his family for the pain and humiliation they suffered.

“The chief minister said the case was left to the CBI as per the requests of the complainant. When another complainant came forward with allegations against the chief minister and others, why a CBI probe was not ordered,” Satheesan asked. (He was referring to the charges levelled by Swapna Suresh against the CM and his family).

Meanwhile, the complainant woman said she would pursue legal action against all six accused in the case.Earlier, she said she was not intending to challenge the CBI’s clean chit to former Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy.