The Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) of the Delhi Government has rejected Reliance Industries contention that it has no jurisdiction to probe into a case relating to irregularity in fixing the price of gas supplied from KG Basin.
Reliance Industries boss Mukesh Ambani and former Petroleum Minister Veerappa Moily, have been named in the FIR filed in February this year by the ACB when the Aam Aadmi Party Government was in power in Delhi.
In an affidavit filed before the Delhi High Court, the ACB said that it had the jurisdiction under law to investigate against the persons named in the complaint made by a former Cabinet Secretary and others on February 10, 2014. Reliance had sought quashing of the complaint and the subsequent FIR lodged by ACB on the ground that “gas” was a subject in the Union list and one of the persons alleged to have misused official position were Ministers or officers in the Central Government.
The affidavit by the Delhi Government’s Vigilance Director said, “The complaint disclosed commission of the offences in Delhi and ACB having jurisdiction all over NCT of Delhi has validly exercised the jurisdiction to investigate.”
It produced Government notifications in support of its claim. By a notification issued on March 20, 1974 ACB was declared a Delhi Police station to investigate offences under Prevention of Corruption Act and other offences committed in course of the same transaction. On August 19, 1998 the l-G of Delhi issued another notification appointing Director Vigilance as ex-officio Joint Commissioner, Delhi Police in relation to superintendence and control over officials of ACB.
On the allegations contained in the complaint, the ACB said, “All these allegations clearly indicate the commission of serious cognizable offence and detailed investigation in the matter is necessary to find out whether there is any substance in these allegations or not.”
As the investigation into the complaint is ongoing, the affidavit said, “From a plain reading of the FIR, the following allegations appear, which if found to be true upon investigation clearly discloses the commission of cognizable offences and will make the persons accused in the FIR liable for prosecution/punishment.”
The affidavit was filed by Delhi Government on June 28, 2014 after the HC in May this year directed both Centre and Reliance Industries to cooperate with the probe. The affidavit will come up for consideration on August 19 in the Delhi HC.
Reliance had two grounds of attack. One, the accused officials belonged to Central Government and two, the contract involved a private company based outside Delhi.
The ACB annexed past instances where they probed officers of the Central Government. It said, “ACB is not acting against the Ministers or the officials of the Central Government per se, but is essentially investigating into the allegations made in the complaint, i.e., conspiracy.” Such conspiracy can involve a Minister or official of the Central Government or other players. Thus to say that ACB will deal with cases against employees of Delhi Government alone, is “misconceived argument,” the affidavit pointed out.
The gas supply contract for 17 years was signed between Centre and Reliance Industries in 2004 at a price of USD 2.34 per mmBTu. In 2007, the price was increased to USD 4.24 per mmBTu. Finally, in 2013, when Petroleum Minister M Veerappa Moily took over, the gas price doubled to USD 8.4 per mmBTu effective from April 1 this year. The complaint reproduced a letter from Reliance to Director General Hydrocarbons on May 22, 2009 indicating the cost of gas production to be less than USD 1 per mmBTu.