The Central Bureau of Investigation on Tuesday told the Delhi High Court that it had closed its preliminary inquiry against Adani Enterprises Ltd for allegedly inflating the value of raw materials and equipment imported for power projects in India, The Indian Express reported. The agency said that it closed the investigation on July 15, 2015, since the project being investigated came under the Maharashtra government’s jurisdiction.
Maharashtra Eastern Grid Power Transmission Company Limited and public sector banks such as State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank and Vijaya Bank were also accused in the case.
Adani was accused of availing the banks’ credit facilities for purchasing power generation and transmission equipment from South Korea and China. The prices of these machines were over-valued and the banks’ funds were siphoned off. Another allegation was that the company exaggerated project costs to fix tariff and access excess finance from banks.
“Shockingly CBI has said that they closed the inquiry against Adani and various public sector banks, only on the ground that matter somehow pertained to Maharashtra and they did not have permission of Maharashtra government,” Live Law quoted Pranav Sachdeva, who had filed the plea on behalf of NGOs Centre for Public Interest Litigation and Common Cause, as saying. “But this is not a correct legal understanding. While investigating the role of public sector banks, no state government permission is needed.”
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