HC relief for Adani in Rs 29,000 crore imports case

MUMBAI: A Bombay high court order has brought to a halt an overseas investigation by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence into the alleged Rs 29,000-crore overvaulation of Indonesian coal imports by the Adani Group.

The high court quashed all Letters Rogatory (LR) sent by DRI to 14 countries, including Singapore and UAE, seeking information into the alleged overvaluation. An LR is a formal request to another country, seeking judicial assistance in accessing information on an offshore entity in a probe.

DRI is probing at least 40 companies, including the Essar Group, for overvaluation of imports. TOI was the first to report on the scam in its December 14, 2014, edition.


Making it clear that it hasn’t gone into the merits of the LRs, the high court said: “We have only dealt with the contention as to whether it was permissible for the magistrate to issue such a Letter Rogatory without following the procedure mandated under the Criminal Procedure Code.”

The DRI began probing a non-cognisable offence without obtaining the necessary permission from the magistrate and in such circumstances, the LRs issued do not meet the test, said a bench of Justices Bharati Dangre and Ranjit More.

Implication
The case deals with a fundamental question regarding the commission of offence punishable under Customs Act, 1962 and whether or not, DRI is entitled to take recourse to the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 for issuance of the Letter of Rogatory by the Magistrate. The Bombay high court held that this provision of the CrPC is not an independent island on which any investigating/ inquiring authority can jump on without taking recourse to filing of a FIR and hence the letter rogatory issued by the DRI stands quashed.