Actions by companies named as accused or beneficiaries were legitimate, says court

Key Highlights

• This, the CBI said, was done by inserting a wholesale margin of 12% (raised from 5%) and by enhancing the turnover eligibility criteria for grant of L-1 licence to Rs 500 crore every year for five years to eliminate competition and favour the group.
• This money, the agency alleged, was used by the party to fund its 2022 Assembly election campaigns in Goa and Punjab.
• The CBI had also alleged that 61% of its profits were illegally transferred to an accused, Hyderabad-based businessman Arun Ramchandra Pillai, as proceeds of crime.
• However, the court said that the policy could not have favoured the company since its own revenue could not have matched the threshold of the policy requirement.
• “The very entity alleged to be beneficiaries of the conspiracy, M/S Indospirit, were themselves confronted with difficulty in meeting the turnover requirement… If the prosecution theory is that the eligibility threshold was deliberately raised to eliminate competitors and secure advantage for conspirators, the fact that the alleged conspirators themselves faced disqualification on the very same turnover condition introduces a serious inconsistency.