Stage set for Vijayan’s trial in corruption case

TRIVANDRUM: A top leader of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) will be standing trial in a massive Kerala  corruption scandal a day after the party concludes its biggest ideological exercise at the six-day party Congress in Kozhikode on April 9.The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court on Monday directed Pinarayi Vijayan, a member of CPI-M’s highest forum, politburo and its Kerala unit secretary and six other defendants in the Rs3.74 billion SNC-Lavalin graft case to appear before it on April 10.The court issued the order after the CBI submitted its reinvestigation report, which also exonerates Speaker G. Karthikeyan, Vijayan’s predecessor as power minister of the state, whom it called in the earlier report as “fountainhead of the conspiracy” behind the contract.Vijayan and other officials under him were accused of awarding the renovation contract for three hydroelectric power stations to SNC-Lavalin flouting norms, overruling objections and disregarding a state-run company’s bid.The investigators say the exchequer lost the entire amount because the power output from those plants did not improve after renovation and it actually went down.The Canadians also failed to fulfill their commitment to grant Rs983 million for setting up the Malabar Cancer Centre in Vijayan’s hometown of Thalassery in north Kerala after an initial payment of Rs90.2 million.Vijayan was grilled by the CBI in May after all his attempts to escape prosecution failed. The CBI concluded that Karthikeyan, during whose tenure the memorandum of understanding for the contract was inked, had no role in the scam. Neither could it gather any evidence after inspecting Vijayan’s bank accounts and other documents to prove that he had personally benefited from the deal as alleged by one of the witnesses, Deepak Kumar and another petitioner.The Supreme Court had in March rejected the CPI-M leader’s plea to quash prosecution against him. The CPI-M which leads the Left Democratic Front (LDF) had also put pressure on Governor RS Gavai by boycotting him after he rejected the decision of the state cabinet headed by VS Achuthanandan against Vijayan’s prosecution.