Putting up strong defence in the Kerala High Court on Friday for Marxist Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, key accused in the sensational SNC lavalin corruption case, senior lawyer Harish Salve termed CBI’s charges against him as absurd. Pinarayi had sought the services of Salve, one of the costliest lawyers in the country, to argue his case considering its crucial nature personally and politically.
Arguing against the CBI’s revision petition challenging a 2013 order of the Special CBI Court in Thiruvananthapuram which exempted Pinarayi and six other accused from the case, Salve alleged that the agency’s actions in the case were with clear motivation. He also alleged that there had not been proper investigation in the case.
The resumption of the case in the High Court – after his exoneration in 2013 by the CBI court without trial – is extremely crucial for the political career of 72-year-old Pinarayi, now in the Chief Minister’s saddle, and the CPI(M), which had defended him ever since the eruption of the controversy despite stiff protests from the very top levels of the organisation.
According to the CBI which had listed out the charges against Pinarayi in the court on Wednesday, there was criminal conspiracy behind the signing of the contract agreement two decades back with Canadian utility company SNC lavalin for the renovation of three hydel projects when he was Power minister. It had accused Pinarayi of misleading the Cabinet and concealing details of the deal from it.
In his four-hour-long argument, Salve sought to demolish this argument by saying that five persons including the Chief Minister, Finance Minister and Chief Secretary of that time had signed in the Cabinet note on the decision to award the contract to SNC lavalin. In such a situation, it was absurd to say that Pinarayi – and the State Electricity Board (KSEB) chairman – alone was responsible as Cabinets worked on collective responsibility, he said.
Pointing out that the deal with the Canadian company was initiated when late Congress leader G Karthikeyan was Power Minister, Salve said the only thing Pinarayi had done was to go ahead with that programme for improving the EB’s efficiency. It was illogical to make him an accused in the case when the initiator of the deal, Karthikeyan, was not an accused, the lawyer argued.
The sensational case pertains to the alleged corruption in the Rs 374.5-crore agreement between the Kerala State Electricity Board and SNC lavalin for the repair and renovation of the Pallivasal, Senkulam and Panniyar hydel power projects. The agreement was finalised in 1998 when Pinarayi was 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 that the agreement with the Canadian company had failed to deliver what was intended of that and had in effect led to the loss of the whole contract amount.
In its report to the HC on Wednesday, the CBI had said that there was conspiracy behind the awarding of the contract to the Canadian company for total renovation of the three projects even when Pinarayi was aware that such a process was not necessary in the case of hydel projects and when he had even seen reports in this regard in advance.
Terming the CBI’s allegation of corruption in the deal as a fabricated story, Salve said the agency’s argument that the deal had caused huge losses to the Exchequer was not maintainable. Pinarayi’s only intention in entering into the agreement with SNC lavalin was to ensure the progress of the KSEB and power security of the State.