Kerala HC seeks details of hydel project from CBI, accused

The Kerala High Court today directed the CBI and the accused in a graft case involving a Canadian firm to furnish details of the controversial hydroelectric project the contract for which was signed when Pinarayi Vijayan was the power minister two decades ago.

The Court gave this direction while hearing a revision petition filed by CBI, challenging a special court verdict discharging Vijayan, who is now the state's chief minister, and six others in the case related to alleged corruption in the hydel project deal with Canadian firm SNC Lavalin.

Hearing the CBI's petition, Justice P Ubaid said the case involves different categories of accused, different stages of transaction and different stages of conspiracy.
 

The court sought several clarifications, including whether the alleged offer made by SNC Lavalin to provide funds for setting up a cancer centre was actually part of the MoU or the first contract.

The Kerala State Electricity Board had signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with SNC-Lavalin in 1995.

"In what circumstances such an offer was made or happened to be made and how or in what circumstances the said offer was accepted by Kerala State Electricity Board?" the court asked.

Posting the case for March 15, the Court directed the parties to submit details of these aspects in writing.

The revision petition was filed against the November 2013 Thiruvananthapuram CBI special court order, discharging Vijayan and six others from the case relating to alleged loss of Rs 374.50 crore caused by them to the state exchequer in awarding the contract to the Canadian firm for renovating three hydel projects in the state.

Vijayan was then power minister in the LDF government headed by E K Nayanar.

The previous Congress-led UDF government had alleged it was Vijayan who had finalised the deal with the Canadian firm.

In February 2016, the High Court had rejected a plea by the then UDF government for early hearing of CBIs revision petition, challenging the acquittal of Vijayan.

The CPI(M) had come out publicly against the then UDF government, alleging that it wanted an early hearing in the matter to build a case against the party and and its leader Vijayan for political reasons.