The Kerala High Court on Wednesday upheld the discharge of Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in the SNC Lavalin graft case, saying the CBI had “wrongly picked” him as, prima facie, there was no case against him.

Justice P Ubaid, who also upheld the discharge of two others in the ₹374.50-crore graft case, rejected the CBI’s plea that a full-fledged trial was necessary to prove the conspiracy.

The court gave its verdict in a 2014 revision petition filed by the CBI challenging the discharge of Vijayan and six others by a special CBI court in Thiruvananthapuram.

The CBI court had, in November 2013, discharged Vijayan and others in the case of alleged corruption in awarding a contract to the Canadian firm SNC-Lavalin when Vijayan was Power Minister in 1996. The award of contract had allegedly caused a loss of ₹374.50 crore to the State exchequer.

“The CBI wrongly picked and chose Pinarayi Vijayan without any material in the case,” the Justice Ubaid said on Wednesday.

The CBI, which had filed the charge-sheet in the case, had argued that there was sufficient evidence to prove the charges against the accused.

The discharge by the special court was ‘illegal’, CBI had stated in its revision petition.

The special judge had ruled that the CBI had failed to prove the charges of conspiracy and corruption levelled against Vijayan and other accused.

The CBI had in March argued before the court that a trial was must to prove the conspiracy in giving the contract to revamp the power projects to the Canadian firm when Vijayan was Power Minister in 1996.

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