THIRUVANATHAPURAM: Kerala High Court has upheld the verdict of the Thiruvananthapuram CBI Special Court discharging Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and two former Kerala State Electricity Board officials from the SNC-Lavalin corruption case. The court, however, made it clear that three other former KSEB officials who were discharged by the Special Court have to face trial in the case.
The verdict was passed, partially allowing a revision petition filed by the CBI against the Thiruvananthapuram Special Court's verdict. The chargesheet alleged that when Vijayan was electricity minister from 1996 to 1998, he hatched a conspiracy along with the other excused, to award a supply contract to SNC-Lavalin at a huge price. The KSEB entered a memorandum of understanding without inviting tenders, thereby violating all rules and regulations. The chargesheet claimed that the KSEB signed the supply contract with the company in 1997 without the government’s approval and merely on the basis of a decision made by a high level delegation headed by the current Kerala Chief Minister.
The chargesheet also said that the important consideration for awarding the £37.45 million contract to SNC-Lavalin, without inviting global tenders, was an offer from the company to facilitate a grant of £9.83 million to establish a cancer hospital at Thalassery in Kannur. In its revision petition, CBI said the Special Judge had “entered into irrelevant arguments without going into the incrementing material and documents furnished by the prosecution to establish strong prima facie case against the respondent accused.”
