Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan to undergo treatment in USA

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to undergo treatment in USA. He will be treated at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

The duration of the treatment will be 17 days. He will leave for the US on August 19 and will return on September 6.

The state government will bear the expenses of his treatment. Pinarayi Vijayan's wife Kamala Vijayan will accompany him on the journey.

This comes two days after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) told the Supreme Court that Vijayan must face trial in a case of alleged corruption dating back to the 1990s. The case pertains to the award of a power project-renovation contract to a Canadian firm, SNC Lavlin.

The CBI has now filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court. In the past, it has claimed there was a conspiracy in manner in which the contract was granted -- which allegedly caused a loss to Kerala's exchequer. Back then, Pinarayi Vijayan was the state's power minister.

Vijayan was discharged in the case in 2013, and the decision was upheld by the Kerala High Court last year. The High Court said the CBI "wrongly picked" Vijayan, and that -- prima facie -- there was no case against him.