CBI files closure report in case against former NCCF chairman and Adani Enterprises

The CBI has closed its case against Adani Enterprises and a former National Cooperative Consumer Federation chairman for alleged irregularities in the award of a contract for supplying imported coal to the Andhra Pradesh Power Generation Corporation, officials said.

The central agency has filed before a special CBI court the closure report in the case registered in 2020 in which it had also booked the then NCCF managing director G P Gupta and senior adviser S C Singhal.

The special court will now take a call on whether to accept the closure, send it back to the CBI for further investigation or proceed with the trial on the basis of the available materials, the officials said.

The CBI had registered the case against Adani Enterprises, former NCCF chairman Virender Singh and others in 2020 after a three-year-long preliminary enquiry on the basis of a complaint from the then deputy secretary of the Union Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Premraj Kuar.

Kuar has taken voluntary retirement from service, the CBI told the special court, which has now issued notices to the retired officer and the current incumbent to remain present on the next date of the hearing.

Based on the findings of the enquiry, the CBI had registered a case of cheating and corruption against Adani Enterprises and the former chairman of the multi-state cooperative NCCF for alleged irregularities in selecting a company for a tender to supply coal to power stations in Andhra Pradesh.

The Andhra Pradesh Power Generation Corporation (APGENCO) had floated a limited tender enquiry for the supply of six lakh metric tonnes (MT) of imported coal via seaports to the Narla Tata Rao Thermal Power Plant in Vijayawada and the Rayalaseema Thermal Power Plant (RTPP) in Kadapa on June 29, 2010, the CBI FIR had said.

The agency had alleged that senior officers of the NCCF did post tender negotiations with Adani Enterprises to give it undue benefits even though the company did not qualify.

It had booked the company and the officials for alleged criminal conspiracy and cheating and under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act for allegedly favouring the Ahmedabad-based company and violating guidelines in the tender process.