KOCHI:
Kerala High Court rejected a revision petition filed by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) challenging the acquittal of Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and other accused in the SNC Lavalin case by a special court.
Earlier, the High Court has directed the CBI and the accused in the case to furnish details of the controversial hydroelectric project. The court had sought several clarifications, including whether the alleged offer made by SNC Lavalin to provide funds for setting up cancer centre was actually part ofn the MoU or the first contract. Senior Supreme Court lawyer Harish Salve had appeared for Pinarayi in the High Court.
The CBI case was that Pinarayi Vijayan, while serving as Electricity Minister from May 1996 to October 1998, along with the other accused, hatched a criminal conspiracy to award 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 Kerala State Electricity Board had entered into a memorandum of understanding without inviting tenders, violating rules, and regulations.
The special court, while discharging Pinarayi 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.
The special court had erred by considering “irrelevant factors”. Pinarayi Vijayan, who had full knowledge of 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 CBI had argued.
