CBI slams Vijayan for his role in SNC scam

NEW DELHI: CBI has told the Supreme Court that Kerala governors decision to grant sanction for prosecution of former power minister and CPM state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan in the multi-crore SNC Lavlin scam was legally sound despite the state governments advice to the contrary.



Responding to Vijayans petition challenging the governors sanction, CBI filed an affidavit in the SC saying state secretarys post was a powerful political position and it could not be ascertained whether the state Cabinet took an unbiased view of evidence against the accused before advising the governor not to grant sanction for his prosecution.



It was during Vijayans stint as power minister in 1996 that the contract for repair and maintenance of three power projects in the state was awarded to Canadian firm SNC Lavlin.



Supporting the governors June 7 decision to grant sanction ignoring the Cabinet advice, CBI said, \"As per the hierarchical set-up and the actual exercise of power in the party (CPM), the state secretary of Marxist party is politically the top most position. When it comes to the prosecution of such a person, the council of ministers would not appreciate the real facts and advise the governor without any bias, it is not even clear whether all members in the council of ministers had in fact considered the evidence against the petitioner (Vijayan).\"



With hearing in the case fixed for March 9, the case is expected to take an interesting turn as Vijayan had argued that a party secretary had no role to play in Cabinet decisions.



The agency also listed 17 grounds to counter Vijayans plea of innocence. The CPM state secretary had said that he had nothing to do with the awarding of contracts since the actual execution of contract happened long after his term as power minister, which he demited in October 1998, got over.



The CBI also cited a parallel development -- agreement with SNC Lavlin for a grant of Rs 98.3 crore for Malabar Cancer Centre (MCC) to be established in Vijayans native town Thalassery. Although the hospital project never took off, the agency accused Vijayan of being the brainchild behind the MCC project.



The agency said the cancer hospital, which came under the purview of health department, was intentionally kept with the department of power, which was under the ministry headed by Vijayan, thereby holding control over the MCC. \"This pointed out that the petitioner had fraudulent and dishonest intention at the time of awarding of supply contract to the firm,\" the CBI affidavit said.