-Dr. Abdul Ruff Colachal
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on August 23 was acquitted of all charges by the Kerala High Court in the SNC-Lavalin case.
Pinarayi Vijayan, a top leader of the CPM, who has been accused by the CBI of swindling Kerala of about 375 crores in the 1990s through hiring a Canadian firm, SNC-Lavalin, to repair and upgrade three major hydroelectric projects, was acquitted of all charges by the Kerala High Court in the SNC-Lavalin case. At the time, Vijayan, now 73, was Power Minister in a coalition government anchored by the Left parties. HC says CBI has no evidence!
The Court also found no evidence against Vijayan as it pronounced its verdict in a revision petition filed by the CBI in 2014 which sought to challenge the release of the minister along with six others in the case.
Vijayan was accused of hatching a criminal conspiracy while he was serving as the electricity minister from May 1996 to October 1998. He along with others named in the case were accused of awarding the contract for the renovation and modernization of few hydroelectric projects to a Canada-based company SNC-Lavalin at exorbitant rates, thereby causing a loss of Rs 374.50 crores to the state. The contract was awarded for the renovation of the Pallivasal, Sengulam and Panniar hydel power stations. Besides Vijayan, six others discharged in the case were senior executives of the Kerala State Electricity Board.
The charge sheet in the case was filed by CBI which had claimed that there was substantial evidence against the accused terming their release by the special court as ‘illegal’ in the revision petition. However, the judge in the special court had ruled that the CBI could not prove the charges. Earlier this year in March, the CBI had insisted before the court that a full-fledged was necessary to prove the conspiracy charges.
The case was heard by a CBI special court, Thiruvananthapuram, which had in November 2013 acquitted Vijayan and the rest. The charge sheet in the case was filed by CBI which had claimed that there was substantial evidence against the accused terming their release by the special court as ‘illegal’ in the revision petition. However, the judge in the special court had ruled that the CBI could not prove the charges.
Earlier this year in March, the CBI had insisted before the court that a full-fledged was necessary to prove the conspiracy charges.
Kerala state’s high court, ruling against the investigating agency, said the CBI is wrong to link Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to a corruption case that the 73-year-old has described as a witch-hunt, said. The High Court rejected the petition of the CBI and stated that he cannot be held accountable for the loss to the exchequer, while also acquitting two others in the graft case. “The CBI has picked and chosen Pinarayi Vijayan. There is no prima facie evidence against him. There are subsequent power ministers in Congress led UDF who interacted with SNC-Lavalin. But CBI has chosen Pinarayi Vijayan alone as accused,” the High Court said.
The charges of a scam were raised by the next UDF government that was led by the Congress which said the contract had been assigned without any bidding process and was inflated to benefit the Canadian firm. “The CBI wrongly picked and chose Pinarayi Vijayan without any material in the case,” Justice P Ubaid said. Senior Supreme Court lawyer Harish Salve appeared on Vijayan’s behalf. The Court also found no evidence against Vijayan as it pronounced its verdict in a revision petition filed by the CBI in 2014 which sought to challenge the release of the minister along with six others in the case.
In 2013, Vijayan was discharged by a CBI court along with six others from the case which said the agency had failed to provide any evidence of his role in the alleged scam. The CBI then appealed against that verdict and lost its case today.
Soon after the verdict, Vijayan said with a smile, “”The case was politically motivated. I am happy that truth has won…There has been a constant witch-hunt against me. They tried to witch-hunt CPM through me… Everyone knows that CBI did this because of the political pressure on them. From the federal government as well ” His relief was evident as sweets were distributed to with media persons, soon after his address.
Pinarayi Vijayan was born 24 May 1945 is an Indian politician who is the current Chief Minister of Kerala, in office since 25 May 2016. Vijayan was born in a poor family in Pinarayi in Malabar district (present-day Kannur District), as the youngest son of Koran and Kalyani. After graduating school, he worked as a handloom weaver for a year before joining for Pre–university course in the Government Brennen College, Thalassery. Subsequently, he completed his degree course from the same college
A member of the Politburo of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), he was the longest serving secretary of the Kerala State Committee of the CPI (M) from 1998 to 2015. He also served in the government of Kerala as Minister of Electric Power and Co-operatives from 1996 to 1998.
Pinarayi Vijayan entered politics through student union activities at Government Brennen College, Thalassery. He eventually joined the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in 1964. Vijayan became Kannur district secretary of the Kerala Students Federation (KSF), which later became the Students Federation of India (SFI). He went on to become the state secretary and subsequently the state president of KSF. He then moved on to Kerala State Youth Federation (KSYF), which later became the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI). He became the president of the state committee. During that period, when communists in Kerala were organizing the political activities from different hide-outs, Pinarayi Vijayan was imprisoned for one and a half years.
Later Vijayan was elected as the president of the Kerala state co-operative bank. During the emergency, he was arrested and tortured by police. He became the Kannur district secretary of the CPI (M) when M.V. Raghavan left the party over the ‘alternative document’ row. Within three years, he became a member of the State secretariat. He was elected to the Assembly in 1970, 1977 and 1991 from Koothuparambu, in 1996 from Payyannur and in 2016 from Dharmadom. He was the Minister for Electric power and Co-operatives in the E.K. Nayanar ministry from 1996 to 1998. In 1998, he became the state secretary of the CPI (M), following the death of the incumbent Chadayan Govindan. He was elected to the Politburo of the CPI (M) in 2002.On 26 May 2007, the CPI (M) suspended Pinarayi Vijayan and V. S. Achuthanandan from the politburo for their public remarks on each other. Pinarayi was reinstated into the Politburo later.
Vijayan won a seat in the May 2016 Kerala Legislative Assembly election as the CPI (M) candidate for Dharmadom constituency and was selected as the leader of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) and became the 12th Chief Minister of Kerala.
The verdict has come as a big boost to the Pinarayi Vijayan government, which has been under attack by the Congress-led Opposition, which has been alleging, among other things, the health minister KK Shailaja of nepotism.
The verdict arrives at a time when the center is being regularly accused by opposition parties of using the CBI to punish political rivals. CBI is going to approach the Apex court.
The incumbent BJP led Hindutva government seems to be exercising full control over the supreme court judges to enact judgment according to whims and fancies of the RSS, the ‘mother’ of Hindutva extremist political outfits targeting Islam and Muslims. The latest “judgment” of Apex Court on Muslim divorce practices reveals that without ambiguity. Apparently, the majority of judges of Supreme Court for whatever reasons, unfortunately, toes the RSS-BJP’ communal line in judgments to insult Islam and Muslims. Indian core media are tuned to anti-Islamism as part of their anti-Pakistan tirade. The judgment is also a part of that smear campaign against Islam and Indian Muslims.
The case concerning Babri Mosque pulled down by Hindutva criminal elements like wild beasts, is in the Supreme Court and the Modi regime obviously is doing everything possible to make Hindutva judgment on that issue.
What exactly the judges are going to do in the illegal case is a matter of concern.