CBI files review petition in SNC lavalin case

With just days left for the time for appeal to end, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Friday filed a review petition in the SNC lavalin case in which CPI-M state secretary Pinnarayi Vijayan was discharged by a CBI court.

On Nov 5 last year, CBI special court judge R. Reghu termed the investigation agency's chargesheet baseless, and accepted Vijayan's discharge petition, also exonerating all the seven who had filed a discharge petition. The CBI filed the review petition Friday at the Kerala High Court and stated that the CBI court did not go in-depth into the agreement that was signed by Vijayan with the Canadian company, SNC lavalin, in 1997 for renovating three power plants in the state. 

In June 2009, the CBI had filed chargesheets against nine accused in the Rs.374 crore scam. Vijayan was the seventh accused in the chargesheet. Ever since Vijayan was discharged by the CBI court last year, a few senior Congress leaders were up in arms, pressurising the state government to see that necessary steps were taken so the CBI files a review petition against the discharge. 

The review petition comes at a time when earlier this week, a judge withdrew himself from hearing the appeal filed by a journalist, T.P. Nandakumar, who approached the high court against Vijayan's exoneration by the CBI court.  Reacting to the appeal filed by the CBI, Vijayan pointed out that the discharge was given after the CBI court found that the case did not merit even a trial. 

"So that's the situation. Now we will see, now that the appeal has been filed. Some are upset after the discharge was effected by the CBI court," Vijayan told reporters in the state capital.