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The Supreme Court on Thursday stayed the trial in the SNC Lavalin case till further orders. It accepted the CBI's appeal against the release of Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and two others from all criminal and corruption accusations. A Bench consisting of Justices N.V. Ramana and Justice Abdul Nazeer issued notice on the CBI appeal against the release of Mr. Vijayan, K. Mohanachandran, former principal secretary, Department of Power; and A. Francis, former joint secretary in the same department, by the Kerala High Court on August 23. The discharge petitions of K.G. Rajasekharan Nair, former Member (Accounts) of the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) and Kasthuriranga Iyer, who was Chief Engineer (Generation) in the Board were dismissed. The court has asked for the response of the investigation agency on pleas made by Mr. Iyer, Mr Nair and R. Sivadasan as to why they were not treated at par with Mr. Vijayan and the two co-accused who were discharged from all charges. Mr. Mehta stated that the High Court had crossed the limits of its jurisdiction under Article 227 of the Constitution and there is a need to re-hear the case. Mr. Rohatgi and Mr. Basant asked the Bench to grant status quo on the trial proceedings while the appeals are pending in the Supreme Court. The CBI in its appeal, said there are plentiful material to prove the involvement of Mr. Vijayan in the Lavalin deal which ought to have been considered at the phase of trial as it were. The CBI said the High Court blamed it for selecting a "pick and choose" strategy in naming certain people as accused. In any case, the CBI countered, it was the court that resorted to such an approach by releasing certain blamed people while leaving the rest of the charge-sheeted people to confront trial. In the appeal, CBI addressed that how the High Court could hold that there was criminal conspiracy on one hand and release certain blamed people on the other. All the blamed, apart from the three released, would now confront trial for causing a loss of ?86.25 crore in the KSEB's contracts with Lavalin, a Canadian entity, for the renovation and modernisation of Pallivasai, Sengulam and Panniar hydroelectric activities in Idukki district of Kerala. The work was granted to Lavalin, which was just a consultancy firm, without welcoming any tenders for ? 243.74 crore. When work was finished, the expenses had gone up to ?374.5 crore. In addition, the KSEB neglected to execute a binding agreement from Lavalin for a grant of ?98.3 crore for the construction of the Malabar Cancer Centre. A criminal case was registered on February 12, 2007 and the CBI filed its charge sheet on June 12, 2009.
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