New Delhi:
Former Oil Minister Murli Deora, who has been named in a criminal case over gas pricing, has said that the former Arvind Kejriwal government in Delhi had no authority to initiate an investigation in a decision taken by the Centre.
Before he resigned as Chief Minister last week, Mr Kejriwal ordered an FIR against Reliance chairman Mukesh Ambani, Oil Minister Veerappa Moily and Murli Deora, who was Petroleum Minister between 2006 and 2011. An FIR is the first step in the filing of formal charges and obliges the police to begin an investigation.
"We are approaching the Lieutenant Governor on this issue, I don't think Mr Kejriwal has got authority to prosecute or have this FIR," Mr Deora told NDTV today.
Mr Kejriwal has alleged that the Centre and Mr Ambani colluded to inflate the prices of gas produced from the D-6 block off the Eastern Coast which is operated by Reliance.
Mr Deora has been named in the FIR over a 2007 decision to hike gas prices to four dollars a unit. Answering the charge, Mr Deora said the prices were hiked as per the recommendations of the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM), not him.
He is also charged with giving approval to Reliance's plan of quadrupling their expenditure from $2.2 billion to over $8 billion when their production target had only doubled, in just two years. Mr Deora told NDTV, "I do not know what this is. You do not expect the minister to know all the details."
Replying to the allegation that the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) had made against Reliance in their report in 2011, he said, he was in the clean since he had in fact ordered the audit.
Mr Kejriwal's move for an FIR had raised questions about whether the Delhi government, through its anti-corruption bureau, can investigate a decision taken by the Centre. Mr Deora might use the same argument in a letter to Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung.