Kerala’s Left government has decided to hand over to the CBI a case in which several senior Congress leaders have been accused of rape, prompting the main Opposition party to allege a politically motivated move ahead of the summer Assembly polls.

According to the complainant, herself the prime accused in the 2013 “solar scam”, she had been forced to not just bribe Congress leaders but sleep with them — when the party was in power (2011-16) — for help to float a company that would make solar panels.

Among the accused are then chief minister Oommen Chandy, Congress general secretary K.C. Venugopal, Adoor Prakash, A.P. Anil Kumar and his secretary Sahadullah, MP Hibi Eden and A.P. Abdullakutty, who is now in the BJP.

The woman levelled the charges in 2013 through a media statement from jail shortly after being arrested in the solar scam, accused of cheating a large number of people by getting them to invest in her company that soon went bust.

The rape case was registered in 2018, two years after the Left had come to power and the woman had had her statement recorded before a magistrate.

Chandy said: “The government sat on this case for five years and has now decided to hand it over to the CBI. This only shows the secret understanding between the CPM and the BJP.”