Bombay High Court stays CBI probe against Tata Consulting Engineers over alleged Rs 800 crore JNPA dredging scam. Court flags IT Act breach after CBI reveals ex-director’s laptop password in official memo.
Mumbai: Today, on July 15, the Bombay High Court has temporarily stopped the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) from continuing its probe against Tata Consulting Engineers (TCE) in a major Rs 800 crore scam linked to the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority’s (JNPA) capital dredging project.
This stay order was issued on Tuesday by a division bench of Justice A.S. Gadkari and Justice Rajesh Patil after the Court found serious problems in how the CBI carried out a search and seizure during its investigation.
The case is related to a 2003 project that aimed to deepen and widen the sea channel shared by JNPA and Mumbai Port. This was needed to allow bigger cargo ships to pass through. TCE was appointed as the project management consultant.
Its main work included preparing the tender documents and supervising the execution of the project. The company submitted the final planning report for Phase I in 2010.
However, the CBI later filed an FIR on June 18, 2024, accusing several parties—including TCE and its then director Devdutt Bose—of being part of a criminal conspiracy that caused financial losses to the government.
The CBI claimed that payments of Rs 365.90 crore in Phase I and Rs 438 crore in Phase II were wrongly made based on fake over-dredging claims and tampered project survey data.
It was also said that key documents and suspicious digital evidence were found during searches at locations in Mumbai and Chennai.
The FIR named TCE, Devdutt Bose, former JNPA chief manager Sunil Kumar Madabhavi, Boskalis Smit India LLP, Jan De Nul Dredging India Pvt Ltd, and other public officials.
They were booked under Sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), along with various sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
TCE strongly denied all the allegations and filed a petition in the Bombay High Court requesting the FIR to be quashed.
It stated that its role was only limited to consultancy and it had no say in the financial or contractual decisions. The company said there was no material proof linking it to the alleged wrongdoing.
Senior Advocate Amit Desai, who appeared for TCE, requested urgent relief in Court. The bench was initially planning to take up the matter after two weeks, but they changed their mind after seeing something alarming in the CBI’s documents.
The Court noted that the memo prepared during the CBI’s search included the password to the laptop of Devdutt Bose, which was a major concern.
The judges said this was a clear violation of the Information Technology Act, and they immediately ordered a stay on the investigation against TCE.
Justice Gadkari said in Court:
“You cannot do it.. How can you publish the password of someone? This is contrary to the basis of the IT Act.. How can you do it? You have caused damage to someone … You (CBI) can’t publish someone else’s password in public no … N number of advocates have seen it … you have seen it. See Sections 3,4 of the IT Act. This is a very sensitive matter … This involves tampering. This in itself is mandatory grounds for discharge.”
The Court also raised doubts about whether the password was revealed with dishonest intentions, possibly to help rival companies. It considered this a serious matter that could not be ignored.
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The High Court has now asked the CBI to explain on whose basis the FIR was filed and to respond to TCE’s claim that both the Attorney General for India and the Board of Trustees of JNPT had earlier looked into the matter and found no evidence of any criminal activity.
The case will be heard again in two weeks.
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