A Delhi court docket Thursday accepted a closure report filed in a case of alleged irregularities within the pricing of pure gasoline from KG Basin in opposition to former Petroleum Minister Veerappa Moily, Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani, former minister Murli Deora and former Director General of Hydrocarbons VK Sibal, noting that the report doesn’t disclose any criminality.
Special Judge Geetanjali Goel accepted the closure report filed by the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) on September 15, 2021 noting that “there’s nothing on report which warrants a path for additional investigation into the matter or for taking cognisance of any offense within the matter “
“On a perusal of the closure report and the material on record, there is nothing which discloses criminality so as to attract any offense under the PC Act, 1988 or under the IPC. Arbitration is stated to be pending in respect of some issues and there may be other civil liabilities but the material on record does not disclose the ingredients of any offense,” the court docket mentioned.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had ordered the ACB to register the FIR in 2014, prompted by a criticism his workplace obtained from former Cabinet Secretary of India TSR Subramanian, former Expenditure Secretary EAS Sarma, retired Admiral RH Tahiliani and advocate Kamini Jaiswal.
It was alleged that there was a “conspiracy to defraud the exchequer and people of India and it resulted in bestowing benefits to RIL by the central government, especially by certain named ministers and officers of the central government and abuse of official position”.
The KG-D6 block with a contract space of 7,645 sq km was awarded to a consortium of RIL and NIKO Resources Ltd.
It was alleged that the “single biggest act of corruption done by the UPA government was the decision to double gas price from $4.2/ British thermal unit (mmbtu) to $8.4/mmbtu… whereas the cost of production of gas was much less and it would make the gas price in India one of the highest in the world, affecting millions and leading to abnormal inflation”.
The FIR had alleged that “impact of the gas price would cost the country a minimum of Rs 54,500 crore every year”.
As per the closure report, there was “no allegation in the complaint and thus in the FIR of any favor or violation of any rules/ guidelines in the tender process for awarding/allotment of exploration block KG/DWN 3 or KG/D-6 measuring 7,645 sq km off the coast of Andhra Pradesh in the Bay of Bengal”.
The report acknowledged that in investigation “no evidence had been found of any criminality in the issue of gas pricing and there was nothing to bring the matter within the ambit of PC Act and the issues regarding the violation of PSC would be subject matter of arbitration” .
Furthermore, the complainant, Jaiswal had additionally not objected to the closure report, submitting to the court docket that “many years had passed”.
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With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
