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Kerala ex-minister, top officials indicted for corruption

Former electricity minister and Kerala Congress-B leader R Balakrishna Pillai and two others are to stand trial on charges of corruption in the Graphite II case.

Enquiry Commissioner and Special Judge K P Balachandran read out the charges, framed today, to Balakrishna Pillai (first accused), former Kerala State Electricity Board chairman P Kesava Pillai (second accused) and former power secretary and senior Indian Administrative Service officer G Gopalakrishna Pillai (third accused) and adjourned the case to May 30.

The court, on March 18, had rejected the petition filed by the first and third accused seeking discharge.

According to the chargesheet, Balakrishna Pillai and the two others had entered into a conspiracy and diverted 16 million units of power worth Rs 1.9 million to the Bangalore-based Graphite India Limited from June 1985 to April 1986 even though there was a power shortage in Kerala at the time.

This action, done without the prior consent of the state government and against the Kerala Electricity Rules, had caused undue pecuniary benefits to Graphite India.

Pillai told reporters later, "It is politically motivated harassment," but added, "Finally, the court will give me justice."

He said he was planning to move the Kerala high court against the new chargesheet.

The indictment of Balakrishna Pillai, a member of the state assembly, in the Graphite II case came within four months of his conviction by a special court in Ernakulam on charges of financial irregularities in the construction of a tunnel and surge shaft of the Edamalayar Hydroelectric Project.

On November 10, 1999, the special court sentenced Pillai and three others in the Edamalayar case to five years in prison. His appeal is now pending before the high court.

Pillai was also sentenced to one year's imprisonment in the Graphite I case three and a half years ago. The appeal against this too is pending before the high court.

Both Balakrishna Pillai and Kesava Pillai have now been charged under section 120(B) of the Indian Penal Code (conspiracy) and under section 5(2), read with section 5(1)(d), of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1947.

But Gopalakrishna Pillai, now chairman of the Kerala Public Service Commission, was not charged under Section 5(2), read with section 5(1)(d), of the PCA. He was indicted only for the offence under section 120(B) of the IPC, because the prosecution had not obtained sanction for his prosecution under the PCA when the court took cognisance of the case.

In Balakrishna Pillai's case, the prosecution had obtained sanction under both section 197 of Criminal Procedure Code and section 6 of the PCA, 1947. In Kesava Pillai's case, the prosecution had obtained sanction only under section 197 of the CrPC. The sanction under section 6 of the PCA was not needed because he had ceased to be a public servant when the court took cognisance of the case.

While the Graphite I case pertains to the diversion of power to Graphite India Limited between October 1984 and May 1985, the Graphite II case deals with the period between June 1985 and April 1986.

UNI

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