JOIN US Judge K P Jyotindranath gave the orders after issuing summons to all nine accused, including CPM state secretary and former power minister Pinarayi Vijayan, to appear before the court on September 24. The judge said trial proceedings can begin against the nine accused under the IPC and the Anti-corruption Act.
The CBI had made a reference to Karthikeyan in the charge sheet saying that it was during his tenure as power minister that the MoU was entered into between the state government and SNC Lavalin for renovating three hydel power plants. In fact, the CBI had even described Karthikeyan as the man who began the conspiracy “even though it was Vijayan who benefited from the same.’’
However, the CBI submitted that it had no evidence to prove Karthikeyan’s role beyond signing the MoU. The court has said that along with Karthikeyan, the role of Gopalakrishnan, a former member of KSEB, has also to be investigated again.
While the CPM has termed the judge’s order against Karthikeyan as evidence to prove that the CBI case against Vijayan is politically motivated, Karthikeyan has stated that he would cooperate with the investigations. The CPM had for long questioned the CBI’s rationale of leaving out the Congress leader, who had inked the deal with Lavalin from the ambit of the case.