CBI Books Rolls Royce For Bribing Officials In Government Companies Including HAL, GAIL And ONGC

New Delhi: UK-based aerospace and defence major Rolls Royce has come under scanner of the Centre Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for involvement in an alleged corruption case in India. According to a recent report by news agency ANI, Rolls Royce has been booked for bribing around Rs 75 crores to some unknown officials of companies including Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL). The payment to these officials were made through Delhi based M/s Aashmore Pvt Ltd. CBI has registered an FIR against Rolls Royce and the unknown officials of HAL, ONGC and GAIL over corruption allegations. This not for the first time that the London-based company has been accused to corruption in India. Earlier this year, Rolls Royce was charged of bribing officials from the state-owned companies like HAL, oil and gas explorer ONGC and gas distribution giant GAIL. However, the UK government had dropped the corruption charges against Rolls Royce in February 2019. As per reports, CBI has booked London-based Rolls Royce and its Indian subsidiary for allegedly engaging services of an agent in India to get contacts. The company had got contracts worth Rs 4,736 crore from HAL between 2000 and 2013 besides contracts of supply of spare parts for GAIL and ONGC, CBI said. It is alleged that Rolls Royce engaged the services of an agent in spite of signing an integrity pact which bars such arrangements, the investigative agency said further. The action comes five years after a long preliminary inquiry by the agency, the officials said. Apart from India, Rolls Royce had also embroiled in allegations of bribery and corruption to win business in six other countries including Indonesia, Thailand, Russia, Nigeria, China and Malaysia. The charges relating to India in the case involved "concealment or obfuscation of the use of intermediaries" to facilitate the company's defence business in India between 2005 and 2009, at a time when the use of intermediaries was restricted by the Indian authorities.