Mumbai: The city’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW) has closed three of the four cases registered against multiple companies and their directors for allegedly defrauding state govt of nearly Rs 123 crore by submitting fake bank guarantees in the solar agriculture energy channel 2.0 tender process, saying no criminality was found and there was no financial loss to govt.On Feb 20, EOW took over the probe into Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd’s (MSEDCL) complaint filed at Nirmal Nagar police station against the directors of Nacoff Urja, NOPL Projects, Integration Induction Power, IIPL Three Hingoli, IIPL Four Parbhani, Nacoff Urja-NOPL Pace Green Energy, Onix Renewable and Onix IPP.MSEDCL alleged that the firms had entered into power purchase agreements by submitting bank guarantees prepared using fake rubber stamps. The scheme is aimed at making electricity available to farmers during the day.An EOW officer said: “We examined all the relevant records and filed a C summary report in three cases involving a total Rs 109.2 crore before the Esplanade court.” A C summary report is filed when a case is registered by mistake or no criminality or cognisance offence is found.While three of the cases, where financial losses of Rs 11.3 crore, Rs 48.5 crore, and Rs 49.5 crore were mentioned in the FIRs, have been closed, investigation into the case where the loss to the state government was tagged at Rs 13.65 crore is still on, said an EOW officer.“The statements of all the accused were recorded. Later, fresh bank guarantees were submitted by these companies, which had earlier appointed a third party for submitting bank guarantees,” said a senior EOW officer.The complainant, MSEDCL, has an option to file a protest petition in court against the C summary report, said sources.
