By IANS
Thiruvananthapuram : Pinarayi Vijayan, the Kerala secretary of Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), was attacking the Church to divert attention away from the probe he was facing in the irregularities in the SNC-Lavlin contract, the Congress said Thursday.
“The Central Bureau of Investigation is soon to question him in the SNC-Lavlin case. To soften the impact of that and to raise passion in his party, he attacked a Catholic bishop last week. The attack was planned well by Vijayan,” Congress spokesperson M.M. Hassan told reporters here.
The Kerala High Court ordered the CBI investigation in January this year.
Canadian firm SNC-Lavlin had entered into an agreement for modernisation of three hydroelectric projects of the Kerala State Electricity Board in 1997, when Vijayan was power minister.
A Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) report found deviations from the prescribed procedures in the selection of the projects and in the award of the contract.
Hassan said there was a conspiracy to scuttle the probe and the move was spearheaded by A.K. Balan, power minister and a close aide of Vijayan.
“So, we demand that for a clean CBI probe, Balan should be replaced,” he said.
A team of CBI officials Wednesday arrived at the state secretariat here and collected a few files from the power department.