A petition was filed in the Kerala High Court on Friday challenging the verdict of the Thiruvananthapuram CBI Special Court discharging CPI(M) State secretary Pinarayi Vijayan and other accused from the SNC-Lavalin case.
The Special Court had held that the CBI could not prove that any of the accused gained “pecuniary advantage while awarding the contract to the SNC-Lavalin, a Canadian company.’’ The petition was filed by editor of Crime, a fortnightly, and one of the witnesses in the case T.P. Nandakumar.
According to him, the Special Court should have framed charges and conducted a trial before discharging Mr. Vijayan and others.
According to the CBI charge-sheet, Mr. Vijayan, while serving as Electricity Minister from May 1996 to October 998, along with the other accused, had 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. The CBI further alleged that the KSEB had entered into a MoU without inviting tenders, violating all rules and regulations.
The CBI Special Judge had held that the charges levelled against the accused were groundless and all the accused were entitled to get a discharge.
