THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Giving a clean chit to Assembly Speaker and former Power Minister G Karthikeyan in the SNC Lavalin case, a further investigation conducted by the CBI has found nothing incriminating to prove that CPM state secretary and former Power Minister Pinarayi Vijayan made financial gains in the controversial scam. A report to this effect was submitted to the CBI court here on Monday.However, the original SNC Lavalin case, suspectedly involving a loss of Rs 374.5 crore to the state exchequer over allegations that undue favour was shown to the Canadian company in the matter of awarding renovation and modernisation contracts of Pallivasal, Sengulam and Panniar hydro-electric projects, is still pending. The court which postponed the case to April 10, 2012, has also sent notices to seven of the accused, including Pinarayi Vijayan, the seventh accused. A warrant against Klaus Triendl, former vice-president of SNC Lavalin and a summons to SNC Lavalin Company, the ninth accused, which were returned unaddressed earlier, was reissued.The CBI probed the role of Karthikeyan, who held the Power portfolio at the time of signing of the consultancy contract, and former KSEB member R Gopalakrishnan in detail and came to the conclusion that further investigation could not establish criminal intention or overt acts in respect of signing of the Memorandum of Understanding on August 10, 1995 and further to it the consultancy contracts on May 24,1996.The CBI report states that ‘’further investigation could not substantiate the allegations raised by T P Nandakumar and V Deepak Kumar against Dileep Rahulan, former director of SNC Lavalin, a signatory to the MoU, and contracts entered into between KSEB officials and SNC Lavalin, Pinarayi Vijayan and G Karthikeyan and their alleged nexus’’.The crux of Nandakumar’s allegations was that there was an unholy nexus between Pinarayi and Dileep Rahulan, a UAE-based businessman.“Nandakumar could not furnish any material evidence to support the allegations that he had raised in his petition,’’ states the Further Investigation Report, a copy of which is with Express.The CBI investigation also dismisses Deepak Kumar’s allegations that he was a witness to Pinarayi Vijayan receiving `2 crore from Dileep Rahulan in May 1996. That G Karthikeyan received `25 lakh when he was a minister, which was another claim, was also rejected by the CBI for lack of evidence.
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