KOCHI:The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has closed the case against FACT former CMD George Sleeba after the investigation could not establish criminal conspiracy and the other charges.
The case is that George Sleeba allegedly entered into a conspiracy to sign an MoU with Indian Potash Limited, when he was the CMD of FACT, for import of raw materials at higher rates so as to benefit private parties.
Another company, Mincore Resources Private Limited, allegedly joined the conspiracy with Indian Potash Limited and supplied about 4,000 MTs of sulfur at a significantly higher price than its actual value, from the Tuticorin Port for one year. It was also alleged that the parties omitted to safeguard the interest of the FACT by compromising on the quality of the sulfur. The company incurred a loss of Rs 1.25 crore, and there was a corresponding unlawful gain to the accused persons.
The CBI investigation disclosed that the Memorandum of Intent and Memorandum of Understanding were signed between FACT and Indian Potash Limited with the approval of the board of directors of FACT and that of the Ministry of Fertilisers.
It was done with the intention to improve the working capital position of FACT and to overcome the poor response to the tender floated by FACT, and no malafides on the part of the officials could be established. Meanwhile, the investigation into the allegation of procurement of ‘substandard’ sulfur from Mincore Resource Private Limited revealed that the process engineer had visited Tuticorin and had collected two samples from the stock, which was analysed at the quality assurance department of the FACT.
Sample -1 was found to be within the specifications, whereas sample - 2 contained higher levels of ash that was beyond the specifications. Since 75 per cent of the materials was of good quality, and only the remaining portion had high ash content, there was only 0.038 per cent ash content in the composite sample that was well within the specifications. The cases against Parvinder Singh Gahlaut, managing director of Indian Potash Limited, and Mincore Resources Limited were also closed.