Thiruvananthapuram: For the second time in the last 10 days, Congress leader and former Electricity Minister G Karthikeyan was questioned by CBI in connection with a graft case relating to a 1998 contract with a Canadian company, in which CPI(M) state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan figures as an accused.
Karthikeyan was questioned for three hours at the Chennai
CBI office on Sunday, the central agency sources said.
"I was asked to come by the CBI officials. Right from the
beginning of the probe, I have told them I would fully
cooperate with them," Karthikeyan told a local news channel
after appearing before CBI.
He however, did not divulge any details of the questioning
conducted by CBI.
The negotiations with SNC-Lavalin for the renovation of
three hydel projects in Kerala began when Karthikeyan was
Electricity Minister in the UDF government in the mid-1990s.
However, the deal was finalised when the LDF government
was in power in 1998, when Vijayan was Electricity Minister.
CBI's case was that there was a conspiracy behind the
deal which was signed in 'undue haste,' resulting in a heavy
loss to the government.
Karthikeyan's name was mentioned in the probe report of
the CBI but he was not arraigned as an accused in the case.
While considering the case, the court a couple of months
ago had asked CBI to look into the role of Karthikeyan in
the deal and report back to it.
Bureau Report
First Published: Sunday, September 20, 2009, 19:29