Thiruvananthapuram: The police were forced to change the officer assigned to escort solar scam accused Biju Radhakrishnan to the court after he refused to go with a sub inspector.
The Armed Reserve Camp Assistant Commissioner ordered that Sub Inspector Chandramohan be replaced with Sub Inspector Ashraf to accompany Radhakrishnan to Kochi to appear before a judicial commission collecting evidence related to the scam.
Radhakrishnan refused to go along with Chandramohan, with whom he had a tiff earlier on Saturday.
When the accused was produced before the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate’s Court in Thiruvananthapuram in the morning, he requested Chandramohan to let him talk to actor Shalu Menon.
The officer, who was in charge of taking the accused from the central jail to the court, said he could do so only with the court’s permission.
Radhakrishnan’s advocates then made a plea before the court. Though they had asked for an hour’s permission to talk to Menon, the court granted permission for Radhakrishnan to speak to the actor for only 20 minutes, that too in the presence of the superintendent.
Back in the jail for lunch, Radhakrishnan said he would not go to Kochi for the commission’s sitting if he were to be accompanied by the same officer. He told the jail superintendent that he would give an application to change his escort. The Assistant Commissioner then assigned Sub Inspector Ashraf and five policemen to take the accused to Kochi.
The Jail Superintendent said he received the order on Friday morning to take the solar scam accused to Kochi. He said he was forced to request for a change of escort after the accused insisted on it if he were to go to the commission’s sitting. The vehicle and other arrangements were ready to take Radhakrishnan to Kochi when he made the demand.