Thaindian News

New Delhi, July 1 (IANS) The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Friday registered a criminal case against eight people, including the former head of the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) V.K. Sibal, for extending undue favours to a private company, an official said Friday.

“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,” the official said.

The case has been registered against seven DGH officials — then director general V.K. Sibal, then chief geologist D.K. Rawat, then advisor Geo Physics S.K Jain, then head of department accounts K.A Murli, then advisor contracts Anurit Sahi, then manager of finance and account T.S.L.N Reddy, then chief chemist Savendra Gupta — and the private company - G X Technology — and its employee, manager exploration Sujata Subramaniam.

Due to limited resources with the government, these surveys are given to both domestic and foreign firms to explore and develop oil and gas fields in the areas with potential hydrocarbon reserves.

G X Technology was allegedly granted undue favours.

According to the investigative agency, a contract was given to the company in 2005 for conducting seismic speculative survey on nomination basis at an exorbitant cost which caused approximately Rs.400 crore loss to the government.

The agency conducted raids at the accused’s houses and offices in Delhi, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, Noida in Uttar Pradesh and Mumbai. Further searches were on. Sibal was quizzed and his house at Noida was also searched.

“We have recovered documents relating to immovable and movable property belonging to the accused and other incriminating documents,” the official said.

The directorate is the technical arm of the petroleum ministry regulating licences to private operators.