HC stays Solar probe panel's order to produce Saritha's letter

Saritha S Nair. File photo

Kochi: The Kerala High Court has put a stay on the Solar scam probe commission's order to produce before it a controversial letter written by Saritha S. Nair, one of the prime accused in the scam.

The court put the stay on the order for two weeks after the Justice Sivarajan panel, probing the scam, asked Saritha to produce the letter the next time she appears for hearing. Saritha's counsels objected this, citing production of the letter will amount to producing evidence by Saritha herself. Saritha claimed the same at the High Court also.

Saritha wrote the letter in question, which allegedly contains the names of several political figures and other VIPs, when she was in Pathanamthitta jail. Though the probe panel had ordered Saritha to produce the letter before it, she pleaded to revoke the order, saying the matter did not come under the case being considered. However, the commission did not heed to her request.

Earlier, DGP T.P. Senkumar had informed the commission that the police will initiate legal steps to seize the letter. The commission had told the DGP that the confidential content in the letter had already become public and it was needed for the progress of the probe.