Graphite case: Mani to be impleaded as fourth accused

By Our Staff Reporter

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, MAY 15. The Vigilance Special Judge, Mr. N.K. Balakrishnan, has ordered that the former Minister, Mr. K.M. Mani, be impleaded as the fourth accused in the second module of the Graphite case, which relates to the illegal sale of power to a Bangalore-based private company during 1985-86.

The former Minister, Mr. R. Balakrishna Pillai, the former Chairman of the Kerala State Electricity Board and the former Power Secretary, Mr. G. Gopalakrishna Pillai, are the other accused in the case. The charge is that they helped the Graphite India Private Ltd. to gain an illegal profit of Rs. 19.02 lakhs by the clandestine sale of power to that company without any written agreement.

Rejecting the Vigilance contention that there was no tangible evidence to prosecute Mr. Mani in the case, the judge said that even if there was no positive evidence to show that the accused persons had obtained pecuniary benefits, an offence could be deemed to have been committed if their acts of omission or commission had facilitated the private company to obtain illegal profits.

The judge noted that the Special Prosecutor, Mr. P.A. Ahammed, had been able to establish prima facie that Mr. Mani was aware of the illegal sale of power to Graphite India along with the legal sale to a Karnataka-based Central Government firm, Wheel & Axle Plant.

During the period covered by the second module of the case, the first accused, Mr. Balakrishna Pillai, had been Electricity Minister for only five days, while Mr. Mani had held that post for 355 days.

The Special Prosecutor submitted that the former Chief Secretary, Mr. V. Ramachandran, had stated before the Vigilance that he actually recommended that the power supply to Karnataka be stopped from March 1, 1986, in view of the uncomfortable power situation in Kerala at that time.

When that file containing the Chief Secretary's note was received by Mr. Mani, he had held a discussion with Mr. Gopalakrishna Pillai on March 5, 1986. However, Mr. Mani did not take immediate action to stop the supply of power to Karnataka and had instead set up a review committee.

It was noted that an experienced person such as Mr. Mani could not claim that he was unaware that a Cabinet decision was needed for the sale of power to an agency outside the State.

The fact that there was no written contract between the State Government and Graphite India could not have escaped Mr. Mani's notice. The first thing that he should have done was to stop or cancel the sale as it was illegal.

It was pointed out that the report of the review committee was placed before Mr. Mani on April 15, 1986, and that without any hesitation, he had allowed power to flow to Karnataka in a limited way. This showed that Mr. Mani was more eager to serve the purpose of a private company in Karnataka when Kerala was reeling under power shortage and many industries here had closed down, the prosecution said.

Only the first three accused had figured as accused in the chargesheet in the second module of the case and charges were framed against them in March 2000. The Vigilance had conducted further investigation to find out if Mr. Mani could be included among the array of accused and filed a report saying that no tangible evidence could be found against any more persons.

However, the Special Prosecutor, Mr. P.A. Ahammed, questioned the Vigilance finding, following which the court asked for the statement of witnesses and documents relating to the further investigation. The judge has ordered the issue of notices to the accused to be present in court on May 31.

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