The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) today registered a case against former chief of Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH), VK Sibal and seven others for allegedly favouring a US-based firm in carrying out seismic exploration of oil and gas along Indian coasts.
Besides Sibal, the agency has named the then Directorate officials -- Chief Geologist DK Rawat, Manager Finance and Accounts TSLN Reddy, Advisor Geophysics SK Jain, HoD Accounts KA Murli, Chief Chemist Savinder Gupta and Advisor Contract Ms Anurit Sahi -- in the FIR.
The CBI had registered a Preliminary Enquiry in November, 2009 following complaint by the CVC that certain companies were allegedly being favoured by Sibal who was also trying to scuttle a probe by the anti-corruption watchdog.
The agency has also booked private company GX Technologies and its Manager (Exploration) Sujata Subramaniam.
"It is alleged that officials of DGH had given undue favours to a private company in speculative seismic survey in lieu of personal favours obtained from representatives of a private company," official spokesperson Dharini Mishra said.
The CBI alleged that in 2005, a contract was awarded to GX Technologies for conducting seismic speculative survey on nomination basis at an exorbitant cost and this caused huge financial loss of nearly Rs 400 crore to the government.
Soon after booking them for alleged criminal conspiracy, cheating and under the provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act, CBI sleuths carried out searches at nearly 15 residential and official premises of all the accused in Delhi, Noida, Dehra Dun and Mumbai, agency sources said.