Bringing further discomfort to the Kerala CPI(M) with respect to the Rs 374.5-crore SNC lavalin corruption case in which its secretary Pinarayi Vijayan was a key accused, the Kerala Government on Tuesday told the High Court that he had played a decisive role in the controversial deal between the Kerala State Electricity Board and the Canadian utility giant.
In an application submitted before the High Court for impleading in the case, the Government rejected the argument cited in the affidavit filed earlier by the Department of Power that the deal had caused no loss to the State. It said the State and the KSEB had suffered a loss of Rs 266.25 crore due to criminal conspiracy entered into by the accused with respect to the 1998 deal.
In the application submitted in connection with the revision petition filed on January 31 by the CBI challenging an order of the trial court, the Special CBI Court in Thiruvananthapuram, exonerating Pinarayi from the case, the Government pointed out that the KSEB could not have struck the deal with the Canadian firm without the knowledge of Pinarayi, then Power Minister.
The case pertains to the alleged corruption in the Rs 374.5-crore agreement between the KSEB and Canadian utility company SNC lavalin for the repair and renovation of the Pallivasal, Senkulam and Panniyar hydel power projects.
The agreement was finalised in 1998 when Pinarayi, seventh accused in the case, was the State Power Minister. The then Congress-led UDF Government in 2006 had proposed a CBI probe into the deal — which was ratified by the High Court later — after the CAG found out that the agreement had effectively led to the loss of the whole contract amount. The Government’s decision to implead in the case is a politically significant step in the context of the upcoming lok Sabha election.
The Government said in the application that the KSEB had awarded the contract to SNC lavalin for Rs 374.5 crore even after Bharat Heavy Electricals ltd promised to complete the works at the three power installations at a much lower cost of Rs 123 crore. As a result, the State had suffered an effective loss of Rs 286 crore, the Government said. Also, the Government had not been able to ensure the delivery of a Rs 98-crore financial assistance promised by Canadian aid agencies to the Malabar Cancer Centre, Thalassery as part of the deal as there no specific conditions had been laid out with regard to this, it said.
The Government’s application and the decision to implead in the case have upset he temporary relief Pinarayi and the CPI(M) have been feeling after his exoneration by the trial court and Power Department’s claims that there had been no discrepancies in the agreement and that the State had suffered no losses.
The application, filed by the Director General of Prosecutions, said that Pinarayi and the other accused in the case had entered into a criminal conspiracy with regard to the deal. There were a total of nine accused in the case including the Canadian company and its former vice-president Klaus Trendl. The CBI has not been able to bring these two accused to the court so far.
Giving a big relief to Pinarayi and his party, the Special CBI Court had on November 5 exempted Pinarayi from the biggest-ever corruption case Kerala had ever seen along with six other accused. The case had played a big role in his not being able to contest the Assembly elections in 2006 and 2011. The DGP also submitted in the application that the most crucial step in finalising the deal was the visit undertaken by Pinarayi to Canada as then Power Minister but he had not been accompanied by experts on that trip. Strong evidences were available against the accused but the trial court had not considered them properly, the Government added.