The Kerala High Court on Thursday upheld the verdict of the Thiruvananthapuram CBI special court discharging Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and two former Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) officials from the SNC-Lavalin corruption case.
The court, however, set aside the discharge of three other former KSEB officials by the special court. They were K.G. Rajasekharan Nair, former Chief Account Officer; R. Sivadasan, former Chairman; and Kasturi Ranga Iyer, former Chief Engineer of the KSEB. Those discharged included K. Mohanachandran, former Power Secretary and former KSEB Chairman; and A. Francis, former Joint Secretary, Power Department.
The court passed the verdict while partially allowing a revision petition filed by the CBI against the Thiruvananthapuram special court’s verdict. The CBI had alleged in its final report that Mr. Vijayan, who was Electricity Minister from May 1996 to October 1998, along with the other accused, had hatched a criminal conspiracy to award the supply contract for the modernisation and renovation of the Pallivasal, Sengulam and Panniyar hydroelectric projects (PSP project) to SNC-Lavalin at an exorbitant rate.
The CBI further alleged that the KSEB had signed the supply contract with the company in 1997 without the State government’s approval. According to the CBI, the important consideration for awarding the ₹374.50-crore contract to the company without inviting global tenders was an offer from SNC-Lavalin to facilitate a grant of ₹98.30 crore to establish a cancer hospital at Thalassery in Kannur, Mr. Vijayan’s home district.
The court observed that there was no material to substantiate the allegation that Mr. Vijayan had shown undue haste in getting the supply contract signed when SNC-Lavalin offered grant for the cancer centre.
The court added that the proposal was approved by the Cabinet. The CBI did not have any satisfactory explanation as to “what vicious role or dishonest role the former Electricity Minister had in the deal when the Cabinet as a whole had approved the proposal.”
The court observed that what the Cabinet approved was not the proposal of the then Electricity Minister but the proposal of the KSEB. The Cabinet happened to give approval on the basis of material furnished by the KSEB. If so, it would be “unjust and illegal to pick and choose the Electricity Minister and prosecute him for the wrong or illegality committed by the KSEB.”
There was reason to believe that Mr. Vijayan had acted in his capacity as “portfolio Minister and that he had no knowledge of any sort of undue nexus between the KSEB and SNC-Lavalin when he presented the matter before the Cabinet and got its approval.”
The court found that the CBI “picked and chose one Minister alone for prosecution on an allegation of conspiracy.” The court observed that Mr. Vijayan was Electricity Minister for a short period. He had “no sufficient tenure to get an enforceable contract from SNC-Lavalin.”
There was no reason why the CBI had found fault with him alone. He was succeeded by another Minister. There was no explanation why the CBI would not allege such failure on the part of the Ministers who had succeed Mr. Vijayan.
The CBI did not probe the failure of other Ministers who succeeded him, nor had the CBI alleged that Mr. Vijayan had derived or obtained any sort of benefit out of the deal between SNC-Lavalin and KSEB, the court observed.
