CBI arrests GAIL director in bribery case

Gas Authority of India Ltd (GAIL) Director (Marketing) ES Ranganathan has landed in the CBI's net in a case of bribery of over Rs 50 lakh for giving discounts to private companies buying petro-chemical products.

Six persons, including Ranganathan, were arrested on Saturday, as the CBI unearthed the racket involving middlemen and businessmen after registering a case on Thursday and subsequently conducting searches at the premises of the accused at Delhi, Noida, Gurgaon, Panchkula and Karnal among other cities.

The investigators seized around Rs 1.29 crore in cash and articles worth around Rs 1.25 crore from Ranganathan's residence in Uttar Pradesh's Noida.

Besides Ranganathan, the other arrested suspected middlemen are Pawan Gaur and Rajesh Kumar – who is also Director of Rishabh Polychem Ltd, N Ramakrishnan Nair, United Polymer Industries' Saurabh Gupta and Bansal Agencies' Aditya Bansal.

According to the CBI, Ranganathan was allegedly collecting bribes from prospective beneficiaries of discounts to private companies buying petro-chemical products marketed by the Maharatna PSU. He was allegedly "indulging in corrupt and illegal activities in criminal conspiracy" with Gaur and Kumar.

The first arrest was that of Gaur and Kumar, allegedly with Rs 10 lakh which they collected on behalf of Ranganathan, following a tip-off. The others were arrested following this.

According to the CBI FIR, Kumar had directed Gaur to approach Ranganathan to allow some discount to the buyers on petro-chemical products being marketed by Maharatna PSU in return for illegal gratification.

Kumar and Gaur allegedly met Ranganathan at the latter's residence in Noida on December 11 last year and at Hotel Leela in New Delhi three days later. In between the two meetings, Kumar had allegedly contacted other dealers, who would be prospective beneficiaries of the discount.

"Source has further informed that on 17 December, 2021, Rajesh collected the demanded bribe amount from beneficiary private parties and delivered it to Gaur for Ranganathan. Source has further informed that on 18 December, 2021, on the direction of Ranganathan, Nair has collected the said amount of Rs 40 lakh from the residence of Gaur. Thereafter on December 20, 2021, Gaur pursued Ranganathan for issuance of order, on which he had told him that he would sign after returning from Mumbai," the FIR said.

Kumar then allegedly entered into negotiation with "two more prospective beneficiary parties/dealers" other than the previous ones — Gupta of United Polymer Industries and Bansal of Bansal Agencies — and "convinced them to pay bribes in exchange for the favourable orders".

The FIR then claimed that Kumar on January 13 asked Gupta to fulfil his commitment and sought Rs 12 lakh from Ranganathan, who had brought down his demand from Rs 15 lakh.

"Gaur also asked Gupta to send the demanded bribe amount at the earliest. It is also informed that Gupta had already given Rs 3 lakh to Kumar as bribe for said purpose and he would be sending Rs 9.20 lakh through hawala channel on January 14," the FIR said. On the same day, Bansal also gave some money.

The FIR also alleged that Ranganathan also got some checks conducted in November last year at the premises of some of the stockists of GAIL at the behest of Gaur and Kumar. However, Ranganathan allegedly tipped off some of his "favoured parties" before the checks.

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