New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday told the Delhi high court that a preliminary enquiry against Adani Enterprises Ltd, Maharashtra Eastern Grid Power Transmission Company Ltd (MEGPTCL) and various PSU banks on alleged over-invoicing of coal and equipment imported by power generating firms of Adani group for its plants has been closed.
The CBI, in its affidavit, said not much progress could be made in the enquiry and the preliminary enquiry (PE) was closed on July 15, 2015, on jurisdictional issue as the project was under the ambit of Maharashtra government.
A bench of Justices S. Ravindra Bhat and A.K. Chawla listed the matter for further hearing on July 4.
The court had earlier sought the CBI's response on its inquiry into alleged over-invoicing of coal and equipment imported by power generating companies of the Adani group for its plants.
The agency, in its response, said the core issue of the PE was pertaining to the transmission network, which was within Maharashtra, i.e. the Intra-State Transmission System, and thus, it was a project under the Maharashtra government.
It said the PE was on June 12, 2014 against MEGPTCL, PMC Projects India Pvt Ltd, Adani Enterprises Ltd, Maharashtra State Electricity Transmission Company Ltd and unknown officials of banks such as SBI, PNB, Vijaya Bank, OBC, SBM and Canara Ban.
Allegations of availing various credit facilities for the purpose of procurement of power generation and power transmission equipments and machineries from various vendors of South Korea, China among others through UAE-based intermediary Electrogen Infra FZE, Dubai, (an Adani group company) wil be looked into.”
The court had earlier asked the agency to indicate on the affidavit the status of the FIR lodged by it against state-run entities — Metals and Minerals Trading Corporation and National Thermal Power Corporation — in connection with the alleged over-invoicing of coal imports.
It had also asked the CBI to state what steps it took on the alert issued by Directorate of Revenue Intelligence naming 40 other entities.
