Adani Enterprises Ltd involved in Fraud case. The CBI booked Adani Enterprises Ltd, the flagship company of Adani group that bagged a government contract. In 2010 it supplied imported coal. It alleged for fraud.
The Central Bureau of Investigation named Adani Enterprises Ltd and three top officials of NCCF. Government owned co-operative society it is. It also alleged for unknown public servants for corruption.
The Adani Enterprises Ltd entered into the contract that not only violated the tender. But also NCCF officials revealed the bid details of another company. It helped to quote same margin for the supply of coal.
Adani Enterprises Ltd Investigation Case
The spokesperson said that Adani Enterprises Ltd complied with the process, formalities etc. The Company has not done anything wrong in It’s a preliminary investigation report only. The Company shall respond to the same and shall also put forth the factual position to the authority.”
The NCCF officials booked include then chairman Virender Singh, then MD G P Gupta, and then senior advisor S C Singhal. The CBI alleged that the three officials took the decision of issuing tenders unilaterally without consulting a committee appointed for the purpose.
In its FIR, the CBI said: “They had acted in a manner unbecoming of public servants, and in crime conspiracy with other accused persons committed irregularities by the way of manipulation in the selection of the bidders, thereby giving undue favor to M/s Adani Enterprises Ltd in the award of work for supply of imported coal to Andhra Pradesh Power Generation Corporation (APGENCO) despite its disqualification.”
According to CBI, APGENCO floated a tender on June 29, 2010, for the supply of 6 lakh MTs of imported coal on a free-on-rail basis to certain thermal power plants in Vijayawada, Rayalaseema, and Kadapa. Initially, the three top NCCF officials selected Maharishi Brothers Coal Limited (MBCL) without floating an open tender. But when APGENCO extended the bid submission date from July 7 to July 12 that year, NCCF then decided to go for open tender as they said they now had more time.
The tender didn’t opened in seven days. The tender opened when it extended for five days.
On July 10, 2019, NCCF received bids from six bidders including Adani. While MBCL quoted a margin of 2.25%, Adani and three others did not quote any margin. Further, three bids — of M/s Gupta Coal India Limited, M/s Kyori Oremin Ltd & M/s Swarana Projects Pvt Ltd, Hyderabad — were rejected by NCCF as they were not found to be fulfilling tender conditions, the CBI said.
The tender opened in Hydrabad branch. The company did’nt qualify. The tender opened in Hyderabad branch. It did’nt qualify. Instead of canceling the bid of the company. The senior management of NCCF conveyed the offer margin of NCCF to M/s Adani Enterprises Ltd.
Through one of its representatives i.e. Shri Munish Sehgal who was sitting in the NCCF Head Office. Subsequently, M/s AEL vide its letter dated 10.07.2010 addressed to Branch Manager, NCCF, Hyderabad with a copy to MD, NCCF, New Delhi.
Final Word regarding Adani Enterprises Ltd
It said this prima facie makes it evident that when the bids were being processed at the NCCF head office in New Delhi, “representative of Adani Enterprises was informed regarding their imminent rejection due to non-submission of NCCF margin & also that M/s MBCL, the eligible bidder, has quoted 2.25% margin”.
