The Communist Party of India (Marxist), which leads Kerala’s opposition Left Democratic Front (LDF), suffered a huge setback in the run-up to the summer elections when the high court reopened a graft case that was nearly two decades old.
The court decided to hear arguments in the Rs3.74bn SNC-Lavalin scam involving CPI-M politburo member Pinarayi Vijayan, the 71-year-old chief minister aspirant, towards the end of the next month on a state government petition.
The court observed it was taking up the case out of turn since it related to losses to the exchequer. It also allowed the state government, led by Congress party leader Oommen Chandy, to be a respondent in the case.
Justice P Ubaidulla said he would expedite the case considering its public interest. He rejected Vijayan’s argument that the case was politically motivated.
The lower court here had on April 17, 2010, closed the case even before beginning the trial stating that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) could not find any evidence to prove that Vijayan, who was the power minister then, was bribed to clear the deal.
The CBI challenged the decision in the high court two years ago and the petition lay along with several others till the state recently filed an appeal.
The embarrassment came on a day when Vijayan, whose party is on an image makeover exercise by shedding their anti-capitalist image to attract middle-class voters, began his “neo-Kerala” journey from the northern tip of the state.
Party secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, addressing the opening meet at Uppala in Kasaragod, termed the legal setback as a Chandy googly ahead of polls while VS Achuthanandan, who hopes to make a comeback as chief minister, chose to ignore the issue while asserting that there would be a change of guard after the elections.
The government moved the court arguing that the Marxist leader was the dealmaker and should hence be held responsible.
Vijayan is the seventh defendant in the scam involving a contract to the Canadian engineering and construction major. He faces charges of conspiracy.
Two of the nine defendants, the Canadian firm and its former official, are yet to respond to the summons from the court.
Vijayan is accused of wrongfully awarding the contract to the Canadian company for renovating three power plants when he was the state power minister in 1997. The Canadian company, its former vice-president, Claus Trendl, and six former bureaucrats are the other defendants.
The consultancy contract for renovation of Sengulam, Pallivasal and Panniyar hydropower plants with SNC-Lavalin was signed the previous Congress-led government.