What is this lavalin case?
January 17th, 2007
Consider that you are entering into a business deal with a company. Now the company says that it needs 400crores for the business deal. Then it says that out of those 400 crores it will give back 100 crores as a grant to build a cancer centre!
Yes, you read it right! Does it make any sense? What is cancer has to do with hydro electric plant renovation? These questions were asked by top IAS officers at the time, but they were labeled as insane!
There is one thing that unites all parties in Kerala – Corruption…
Sometimes I wonder what would be the state of Kerala or India if there were no courts!
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January 29th, 2009 at 12:22 am
Pinarayi Vijayan was born on March 21,1944.His birth number is 3(2+1=3).Generally,numbers 3,6 and 9 are lucky for him.Besides,his fate number is 24 that adds up to 6.Also,his occult number is 36 that gives 9 by addition.
Thus there is harmonious vibration between his birth number,fate number and occult number.The reason for his steel-like mind,determination and commanding power is attributed to this.
It may be noted that the CBI submitted charge sheet on 21st and that Pinarayi is the 9th accused.
On January 27th(2+7=9) a Divisional Bench of High court of Kerala directed the AG to inform the court about the State Government’s stance with respect to a Writ Petition seeking to declare that no government sanction is needed to prosecute Pinarayi
At the time of first becoming State CPM Secretary Pinarayi was 54(5+4=9) years old.The expulsion of MV Raghavan from CPM was instrumental in the elevation of Pinarayi to higher Party posts.Raghavan was expelled in 1986(1+9+8+6=24,2+4=6).At that time Pinarayi was 42(4+2=6) years old.
February 12th, 2009 at 1:43 pm
What should I say about this stupid fellow???
February 18th, 2009 at 1:50 pm
What SNC Lavalin is saying about the deal:
http://www.snc-lavalin.com/kerala.php?lang=en
June 11th, 2009 at 8:05 pm
The Lavalin Case- Rethinking over section 197 CrPC
Pinarayi Vijayan is the state Secretary of the Kerala CPI(M) and is also the member of the Central Polit bureau, which is the highest decision making body of the Party. The 19th Congress of the CPI(M) had elected a 87 member Central Committee, which on April 03, 2008 elected a 15 Member Polit Bureau. Pinarayi Vijayan is a member of both these. The other members of this Polit Bureau include such stalwarts as the General Secretary Prakash Karat along with his wife Brinda, Sitaram Yechury, Biman Basu, Manik Sarkar, the two CPI(M) Chief ministers Buddhadev Bhattacharya and V S Achuthanandan along with others. He is thus among the most important members of the CPI)M).
The so-called Lavalin case relates to memorandum of understanding (MoU) Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) signed with SNC-Lavalin, a Canadian company in August 1995. During the initial period of the contract, G. Karthikeyan of the Congress Party was the Minister for Electricity. Later during further contracts in February 1997 Pinarai Vijayan was the Minister for Electricity.
Later the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) found that Lavalin was only a consultant intermediary and not the original equipment manufacturer and that the supply of goods and services was made by other firms at a much higher cost leading to excess expenditure. According to the CAG, various avoidable (and at times deliberate) failures on the part of the Board and the government to properly execute the deal resulted in heavy losses to the government of an amount nearly Rs 25 crores. On 16 January 2007, Kerala High Court ordered a CBI enquiry into the scandal. On February 19, 2008, the CBI informed High court of Kerala that the investigation was progressing and hinted at the complicity of former Electricity Ministers Pinarayi Vijayan and G. Karthikeyan. On 21 January 2009, the CBI filed a progress report on the investigation in the Kerala High Court where it named Pinarayi Vijayan as the 9th accused. A total of 11 persons have been arraigned. As per CBI’s version Vijayan, while serving as Electricity Minister between May 1996 and October 1998, colluded with K. Mohanachandran, Principal Secretary (Power) in a criminal conspiracy already in motion in the matter of awarding supply contracts of the projects to Lavalin. The investigations revealed that the supply contract for renovation and modernisation of the Panniyar, Shengulam and Pallivasal hydel projects was given to SNC Lavalin at an exorbitant rate and the per MW cost for the same was the highest. This caused a loss to the Government of Kerala with corresponding wrongful. Thus CBI requested an order for prosecuting Vijayan.
Thus came the question of Prosecution. As per our statues, section 197 of the Code of Criminal Procedure deals with prosecution of Judges and public servants. Section 197(1) states that when any person who is or was a Judge or Magistrate or a public servant not removable from his office save by or with the sanction of the Government is accused of any offence alleged to have been committed by him while acting or purporting to act in the discharge of his official duty no court shall take cognizance of such offence except with the previous sanction of the concerned government.
There are two important Supreme Court judgements in this regards, both exactly opposite to each other. While in the state of Uttar Pradesh vs. Paras Nath Singh, the Supreme Court has ruled that a public servant cannot be given the protection of sanction under Section 197 CrPC if he is facing allegations of indulging in criminal offences. The Court said that forgery, criminal conspiracy, cheating and taking gratification cannot form part of official discharge of duty by a public servant saying-”A public servant, however, is not entitled to indulge in criminal activities,”. The apex court also noted, “It is no part of the duty of a public servant while discharging his official duties to commit forgery of the type covered by the aforesaid offences. Want of sanction under Section 197 of the code is therefore no bar.” At the same time, in another case related to some senior police officers of Maharashtra another bench of the SC had held the prosecution of these officers under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) illegal, on the ground that the accused cannot be prosecuted without proper prior sanction.
The CPI (M) leadership and the workers, both at the Center and in the state of Kerala have refused to take this prosecution lightly decided to fight it out. While the Press Statement in its statement dated June 8, 2009 said that the CBI case “is politically motivated” and that “it is unfortunate that the Governor of Kerala decided to grant permission to the Central Bureau of Investigation to initiate prosecution proceedings” , the workers on the street took the message wholeheartedly and went for a heavy rampage and large-scale ransacking and violence. Previously Vijayan had also issued threats of retaliation and punishment to K. Gopalakrishnan, Editor, Mathrubhumi Malayalam for having played a lead role in exposing and pursuing the Lavlin case.
Thus all these efforts are being made to save a person who is primarily being seen as an accomplish in a criminal case where he has supposedly misused his official position to cause heavy losses to the State exchequer. This from a party that has always boasted of belonging to the toiling masses- the workers and the peasants. But more important than the individuals, it is the basic legal postulate that I want to harp upon. Do we really need section 197 of the CrPC? Isn’t this provision of law being misused persistently or is being used selectively for political ends? For the same criminal acts, the governments and the authorities go by different yardsticks. Against some they grant the prosecution sanction while for others they withhold it for years.
From all this, it seems that this provision of section 197 CrPC is primarily being misused or is being used for specific purposes. At least, it shall be scrapped for cases related with forgery, misappropriation, cheating, misuse of official positions for wrongful gains etc. This is something that is immediately required.
Dr Nutan Thakur
Editor,
Nutan Satta Pravah
Lucknow
June 12th, 2009 at 2:07 pm
CBI has submitted its charges against Pinarayi in Court. As I could see there are 2 major charges.
1,) Pinarayi has favoured Lavlin. He has done so because they said they will asssit in establishing Malabar Cancer Center (MCC) an autonomous body under Government of Kerala as a Charitable Society under Department of Power.
2.) He has failed to get a Binding contract from SNC for establishing MCC
From my view point the second charge is very weak since a SNC has never said that it will not fund MCC. The Contract was allowed to expire in 2001 under then UDF govt. See the link
http://www.snc-lavalin.com/kerala.php?lang=en
CBI has not said that Pinarayi or any other individuals has made money from this deal. This story was created by Media.
June 13th, 2009 at 11:01 am
LAVLINISTIC,NOT LENISTIC
If only CPM GENERAL SECRETARY HAD GIFTED A JUMBO JET OUT OF THE “LAVLIN PROCEEDS” TO MR.PINARAYI VIJAYAN(THE WORKERS’ PARTY HAS STARTED AMUSEMENT PARKS AND LUXURY HOTELS ,BUT NOT A SINGLE L.P.SCHOOL (!) ,THAT IS THE DUTY OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH WHO WERE ATTACKED BY THE PARTY !! )THE CBI COULD NOT HAVE OBTAINED THE EVIDENCE OF “FREQUENT FLIER AWARD”GIVEN BY THE AIRLINES TO MR.VIJAYAN FOR VISITING SINGAPORE 100 TIMES !!