Thiruvananthapuram, Oct 21 : The State Crime Branch police confirmed late on Saturday that they have opened a criminal investigation against former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on suspicion of having sexually assaulted solar energy investment fraud case accused Sarita Nair at his official residence at Cliff house in Thiruvananthapuram in 2013, English daily The Hindu reported.

The online edition of The Hindu quotes "In a first information report (FIR) filed on Saturday in the court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Thiruvananthapuram, the Crime Branch has accused Chandy of having committed a sexual act deemed by law as unnatural on Sarita in reciprocation for promoting her dubious business pitch. The FIR was yet to surface in the public domain, and its facts were mostly secret as of now."

According the news paper, In her complaint to the Crime Branch recently, Sarita alleged that she had gone to meet Chandy in person to seek his political patronage to woo private investment for her solar energy projects. Sarita said some members of the CM’s staff had facilitated the interview. She alleged that Chandy had sought and received sexual favours from her to promote her business.

The high-profile Sivarajan Commission that subsequently probed the politically stormy Solar Scam had found in September 2017 that the top members of the political executive in Kerala in 2013 had sought and received sexual favours from Sarita to promote her business.

Earlier, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan tabled the 1,073-page report submitted by G. Sivarajan on September 26 at a specially convened Assembly session amidst rancorous protests from the Congress-led Opposition. At a press conference later, he ordered the registration of cases against those whom Ms. Sarita alleged had taken sexual advantage of her. Sarita has named a galaxy of United Democratic Front leaders as her exploiters.