Pinarayi Vijayan exempted from SNC Lavalin case

Special court also exempted him from list of offenders in the corruption case

The case involved an alleged corruption of about Rs 374 crore for the maintenance and modernisation of Panniyar, Chengulam and Pallivasal hydroelectric projects in Kerala

Allowing a petition filed by Pinarayi Vijayan, secretary of the state unit of the CPI (M) and former power minister, a CBI special court today exempted him from the list of offenders in the controversial SNC Lavalin corruption case. 

The special court also exempted six senior former government and Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) officials from the list. Rejecting the charge sheet filed by the CBI, the special court judge, R Raju, said the CBI had failed to establish a criminal conspiracy case against Vijayan and others in the case.

The court found the allegations levelled against Vijayan and others in the charge sheet filed by the CBI as baseless. As per the order of the court, the case is likely to be closed as the others accused in the case, SNC Lavalin Company and its senior vice president Claus Trendel, have not yet been questioned by the CBI.  

The case involved an alleged corruption of about Rs 374 crore for the maintenance and modernisation of Panniyar, Chengulam and Pallivasal hydroelectric projects in Kerala. The agreement between the company and the Kerala government was cleared while Vijayan was the state's minister for power.  

In his petition, Vijayan claimed it was nowhere mentioned in the charge sheet that he made financial gains from the scam and added it was registered only for political gain.  

However, the CBI accused Vijayan of according the status of a distributor to SNC Lavalin after he became the power minister in 1997. Prior to this, the company was only a consultant. The CBI alleged, before vetting the agreement, the minister had made a trip to Canada to clinch a deal with the company unaccompanied by technical experts, who could advice him.

Further, the minister had made his decision without the approval from the KSEB or the Cabinet. He also chose to keep away important details of the deal from the state Cabinet and did not take interest to ensure the grant (Rs 90 crore),promised by SNC Lavalin to  the Malabar Cancer Centre was realised on time. He also nominated his personal staff member, Sasidharan Nair, as special officer of the Cancer Centre to safeguard his interests, the CBI alleged. The CBI, however, did not allege Vijayan had made any personal gain through the deal.