The Bombay high court on Friday dismissed a plea seeking a CBI probe into bribery allegations against Adani Green Energy Ltd for securing solar power contracts. The petitioner relied on US court proceedings, but the court cited his failure to establish bona fides and lack of legal standing.
A division bench of the Bombay high court, comprising Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekhar and Justice Suman Shyam, dismissed the plea filed by 61-year-old Jitendra Maru from Silvassa. Maru had sought directions for the CBI to register an FIR under the Prevention of Corruption Act and obtain "Bribe Notes and Electronic Data and Records" seized by US authorities.
The plea alleged an organized bribery scheme involving Adani Green Energy and Delhi-based Azure Global, under which Rs. 2,000 crore was to be paid to officials of state power distribution companies in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, and Jammu and Kashmir. The bribes aimed to secure power purchase agreements at inflated tariffs and higher volumes of solar power. These details were reportedly maintained by an executive director of Adani Green Energy, seized by the FBI, and reproduced in proceedings before a court in New York's Eastern District.
The court observed that the petitioner failed to establish his bona fides and lacked locus standi to file the plea. It noted that such petitions could harm the reputation and business prospects of corporate groups.
The same petitioner had also sought a CBI probe into Reliance Industries Limited for allegedly extracting natural gas unlawfully from ONGC's Krishna-Godavari Basin fields between 2004 and 2013-14 through deep-sea drilling that allowed gas migration. That plea was also dismissed.