Sterlite Industries ex-CEO discharged in cheating,forgery case

Former CEO of Sterlite Industries (India) Ltd Ashok Panjwani has been discharged in a case of cheating for alleged submission of forged documents for procuring a GAIL tender in 2001 by a court here which pulled up police for failing to probe the role of other Directors.
The court discharged Ashok Panjwani, former whole time director and CEO of Sterlite Optical Technologies Ltd (SOTL) and Sterlite Industries (India) Ltd, but upheld the charges of cheating and forgery framed against Bijon Tripathy, who was given the power of attorney by Panjwani.
Additional Sessions Judge Dharmesh Sharma also questioned the Delhi Police for adopting "pick and choose policy" while investigating and booking persons in the case.

"I cannot lose sight of the fact that the prosecution appears to have adopted pick and choose policy in the sense that while they failed to investigate the role of Anil Aggarwal, Navin Aggarwal and other Directors, it has castigated the petitioner/accused Ashok Panjwani for simply being the Whole Time Director and CEO.
"The plea that other directors had no knowledge of the tender process could also be extended to the defence of the Panjwani to the effect that in so far as the tasks of routine business work was concerned that were bonafidely delegated to the petitioner/accused Bijon Tripathy," the judge said.

Panjwani and Tripathy had challenged the trial court's order of framing charges and approached the sessions court.
The court which set aside the magistrate's order of framing charges against Panjwani, currently the MD of Bombay Burmah Trading Corporation, directed Tripathy to appear before the trial court on December 16 for trial.
According to the prosecution, Gas Authority of India Ltd (GAIL) had invited tenders for supply of cables and associated items for the Vizag Secunderabad Liquified Petroleum Gas Pipe Line Project and the tender for it was floated through Engineers India Limited (EIL) in 2001.