The Kerala High Court on Friday adjourned by one month the hearing on a revision petition filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation challenging the Thiruvananthapuram CBI special court verdict discharging Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and six others from the SNC-Lavalin corruption case.
When the petition came up for hearing before Justice B. Kemal Pasha, the CBI counsel pleaded that the hearing be adjourned so that Additional Solicitor General of India Paramjith Singh Patwalia could appear and make arguments on the petition.
The court then asked the CBI counsel to inform the court about the convenient date for taking up the petition.
The CBI case was that Mr. Vijayan, while serving as Electricity Minister from May 1996 to October 1998, along with the other accused, hatched a criminal conspiracy to award the supply contract for the renovation and modernisation of the Pallivasal, Sengulam, and Panniar hydroelectric projects to SNC-Lavalin at an exorbitant cost.
Memo sans tenders
The CBI further alleged that the KSEB had entered into a memorandum of understanding without inviting tenders, violating rules, and regulations.
The special court, while discharging Mr. Vijayan and others, had held that the CBI was not able to prove that any of the accused gained “pecuniary advantage” while awarding the contract to SNC-Lavalin, a Canadian company.
In its revision petition, the CBI said that by discharging Mr.Vijayan and extending the benefit of the discharge order to the other accused, who had not even filed discharge petitions, the special court had abused its authority.
The special court had erred by considering “irrelevant factors like interpretation of the contract awarded in the light of a civil liability cost on parties while subduing the dishonest criminal intention manifest and explicit in the deal from documents and other incriminating material produced from the side of prosecution”.
Mr. Vijayan, who had full knowledge about the “clandestine dealing and in connivance and collusion with the other accused, fraudulently and dishonestly favoured in extending undue benefit and favour to SNC-Lavalin”.
The petition pointed out that the special court went wrong in considering the validity of the subsidiary agreement to provide grant to the Malabar Cancer Centre as a vital factor without considering the allegation regarding the criminality of the contract awarded, dishonestly and fraudulently, at the behest of the accused, in violation of the accepted procedure and rules, the CBI petition argued.
