A top leader of the BJP in Kerala has told that the decision of the CBI to continue with the SNC Lavalin case in which Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan is included as an accused is sheer waste of time. The case dates back to 1997 when Vijayan was the Minister for Power in the E K Nayanar-headed Government. The charge against Vijayan was that the exchequer lost Rs 87 crore in the contract signed between Kerala State Electricity Board and the Canada based SNC-Lavalin for the renovation and modernisation of Pallivasal, Chengulam and Panniar hydroelectric projects in Idukki district of Kerala.
Though a Special CBI court had discharged Vijayan from the case which was upheld by the Kerala High Court. But three senior staff of the KSEB who were asked to stand trial approached the Supreme Court for parity of treatment and questioned the discharge of Vijayan from the case.
The Supreme Court had adjourned the case for more than 30 times since the CBI could not furnish the details of the evidences against Vijayan that linked him to the “deal”.
“The BJP Government at the Centre has nothing to do with this case as it was a balance sheet of the UPA era,” said Narayanan Nampoothiri, spokesman of the Kerala BJP.
The Centre’s failure to link Vijayan to the Gold Smuggling through diplomatic channel in Thiruvananthapuram International Airport and to find any evidence against the chief minister in the LIFE MISSION case has resulted in the probes hitting a dead end.
The State is agog with reports linking a union minister and Kerala BJP leader K Surendran and a prominent Eezhava community leader forging a cartel with the BJP’s central leadership to freeze the probes against the Chief Minister. The Congress leaders K Sudhakaran and Leader of the Opposition V D Satheeshan have alleged that this is part of a CPI(M)-BJP deal for the “Congress-Mukth Bharat”.