A Thiruvananthapuram court on Friday harshly criticised the CBI for the flaws in the chargesheet it had filed in the sensational Rs 374.5-crore SNC lavalin corruption case in which State CPI(M) secretary Pinarayi Vijayan was the seventh accused.
While hearing the CBI's final arguments over the discharge petition filed by Pinarayi and five other accused, the Special CBI Court in Thiruvananthapuram pointed out that nobody could be made an accused for the failures of the administrative system. The court would pass its order on the discharge pleas on November 5.
The Special CBI Judge said that there would have been no legal validity for the conversion of the understanding with Canadian utility company SNC lavalin for making available to the Malabar Cancer Centre an aid of Rs 100 crore in return to the awarding of the renovation works at three hydel projects to the company into a contract.
Pointing out that the offer of aid for the MCC was not made by SNC lavalin but Canadian aid agencies CIDA and EDC, the judge asked the CBI whether such a contract was legally maintainable. This was an error of the State and no person could be made an accused in the name of a contract that was legally invalid, he said.
The CBI lawyer pointed out that Pinarayi was not just a person when the deal was struck but he was Power Minister, the judge asked why the name of Congress leader G Karthikeyan, presently Assembly Speaker and Pinarayi's predecessor in the Power Ministry, was not figuring in the case. The CBI had no specific answer but said no clear evidences were available against him.