The Bombay High Court has dismissed a petition seeking a CBI probe against Reliance Industries and its chairman and managing director, Mukesh Ambani, for alleged unlawful extraction of natural gas from ONGC’s Krishna-Godavari basin fields.
A bench of Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekhar and Justice Suman Shyam refused relief to the petitioner Jitendra Maru, who had sought registration of an FIR for the offences of theft, dishonesty, misappropriation, and criminal breach of trust.
As per Maru, RIL was allegedly engaged in a “massive organized fraud” from 2004 to 2013 by drilling laterally from its contracted deep-sea wells into adjacent Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) wells, thereby illegally extracting natural gas.
The petition claimed that the ONGC had discovered this alleged unauthorised extraction in 2013 and had reported it to the Government of India.
Maru, in his plea, relied on an independent investigation conducted by consultants DeGolyer and MacNaughton, as well as a report submitted by the retired Justice A P Shah Committee, which had concluded that RIL had tapped into ONGC’s reserves.
Reliance not buying Iranian oil
Earlier this week, Reliance Industries rejected the media reports claiming that the company had purchased crude oil from Iran. The largest private sector oil refiner in India said in a statement that it has not purchased crude oil of Iranian origin.
Earlier , media reports said that Reliance has purchased 5 million barrels of Iranian oil after the US granted a temporary waiver.
“Reliance Industries Limited categorically rejects recent media reports that the company has purchased crude oil of Iranian origin,” Reliance Industries said in a statement on Tuesday.
“These reports are baseless, leading to misleading and incorrect claims. We urge the concerned media outlets to verify facts before publication,” the statement said.
Reliance Industries share price
Reliance Industries’ stock saw a significant decline on Friday. The company’s. The company stock was trading about 4.4 per cent lower in the intra-day trade at 02:30 PM. In the last five trading sessions, India’s largest private oil companies’ stock has fallen by 3.8 per cent.
In the last one month, Reliance Industries stock has seen significant movement as the global oil prices have tumbled due to the Iran War and closure of the Strait of Hormuz. The company’s stock has lost about 3 per cent of its value over the last one month.