KOCHI, India, 17 January 2007 — Kerala’s eight-month-old Left Democratic Front (LDF) government suffered a setback yesterday after the Kerala High Court asked a federal agency to probe a power deal during its previous tenure.
The court rejected the government’s objections and gave the direction to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to go into the 1997 deal with the Canadian construction and engineering major SNC-Lavalin to modernize three hydropower projects.
In its report for 2004-05, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) indicted the LDF government led by the Communist Party of India-Marxist for losses to the tune of 3.75 billion rupees to the exchequer from the deal.
The government’s claim that the Canadians had committed to fund a cancer hospital in Thalassery, the home constituency of then Chief Minister EK Nayanar, also fell flat on its face.
The court pointed out that only a few officials were found guilty by the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau and the top brass were spared. It felt higher officials should also be brought to book.
The court, which directed the investigators not to be influenced by the references to the individuals and political parties during the course of arguments, felt that the probe by the state’s agencies cannot be expected to be fair and independent.
The bench of Chief Justice V.K. Bali and Justice K.B. Koshy in their 320-page report observed that a detailed probe was required into all aspects of the deal including the CAG findings that the modernization failed to produce any result.
The court rejected the government’s argument that the previous Congress-led government handed over the case to the federal agency with political motives while a probe by state agencies was in progress. It pointed out that the change of government should not affect such investigations and procedures.
Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan said the state government would not go in appeal against the verdict and would extend all cooperation. “We’ll honor the judgment and we are ready to face any form of investigation,” he said, adding his government’s objections were to the political agenda of the opposition.
