KOCHI: The Kerala High Court on Friday dismissed the plea by Opposition leader VD Satheesan MLA seeking a CBI probe into the alleged corruption in implementing the Kerala Fibre Optic Network (K FON) project, which was announced with the promise to provide free internet for 20 lakh families.

“There is no reason to interfere with the decision taken by the state government or to interdict the government from implementing the project,” said the Division Bench comprising Justice AK Jayasankaran Nambiar and Justice Syamkumar VM.

“We also do not see it necessary to entrust the investigation into the allegations made by the petitioner to the CBI at this stage,” said the Bench.

According to Satheesan, the project and all contracts arising from it were divided among proxies of the people controlling the government. All the tenders for the project had been awarded to a single beneficiary company which was closely connected with persons in power.

The company had allegedly re-routed the work and financial benefits involved to another company that is associated with the same person in power. The project touted as a breakthrough project to provide internet access to economically backward and streamline government works online had been reduced to a scheme for fitting projects to SRIT Pvt Ltd, Presadia,and its subcontractors.

There was a complete violation of administrative action and fraud was committed on the public. The corruption involved in the award of the contract was akin to the corruption in the implementation of the government’s safe Kerala project of the installation of AI (artificial intelligence) traffic cameras.

He pointed out that the CAG had come down heavily on the government for violating tender conditions. The contracts were finalised in haste to award them to those who had proximity in the corridors of power.

The Leader of the Opposition had also sought quashing of the government order issued by the Electronics and IT department of the State-sanctioned selection of the implementation agency of K-Fon, M/s Bel Consortium. A project estimated at Rs1028.20 crore was auctioned for Rs 1531.68 crore at a staggering difference of Rs 400 crore to the exchequer. Hence the tender was awarded to the consortium at a loss of 400 crores.

However, the court deemed the case premature, as the final CAG report on the matter is yet to be released.