The CBI has registered a case against former chief of Directorate General of Hydrocarbons, V K 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 D K Rawat, Manager Finance and Accounts TSLN Reddy, Advisor Geophysics S K Jain, HoD Accounts K A 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 in New Delhi on Friday.
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.
CBI carried out searches at the Noida residence of Sibal who was questioned for about two hours about allegations against him.
The agency said it has recovered documents relating to the case and movable and immovable properties.
Sibal did not respond to repeated attempts to contact him for his comments.
Sources in the agency said there were several alleged discrepancies in carrying out the work and favouring leading private players and foreign consultants involved in oil and gas field explorations.
DGH, under the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, is mandated to carry out speculative geophysical survey with any company to upgrade the available data on hydrocarbons potential in the country, with the purpose of attracting domestic and international firms to explore and develop oil and gas fields.
Sibal was Director General Hydrocarbons during 2004-09.
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