A Delhi court has acquitted two former Maharashtra State Mining Corporation Limited (MSMCL) officials in a case related to alleged irregularities in the allocation of the Adkoli coal block, saying the foundational ingredients of the offences of cheating and criminal conspiracy remained wholly unestablished.
Special CBI Judge Dheeraj Mor acquitted Dominic Gabriel Philip, a former managing director of the MSMCL, and Avinash Manohar Rao Warjukar, a former chairman of the corporation.
The case stems from a 2012 FIR lodged by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) regarding the Marki-Zari-Jamni-Adkoli coal block allocated to the MSMCL in 2006. The federal agency had registered the FIR for criminal conspiracy, cheating and under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
The CBI had accused the two officials of entering into a criminal conspiracy to favour Sunil Hi-Tech Engineers Limited (SHEL) by declaring it technically eligible for a joint venture (JV) despite the absence of required mining experience.
The agency had alleged that specific clauses introduced into a draft Joint Venture Agreement (JVA) during a 2009 board meeting had improperly allowed the sale or pledge of shares, deviating from initial bid guidelines and giving an unfair advantage to a private entity.
In a 157-page judgment pronounced on Monday- (July 13, 2026), the court said the decision to declare SHEL as technically eligible was not a unilateral act by the accused, but a “collective institutional decision” that was scrutinised and approved at various levels of the Maharashtra government, including a High-Power Committee (HPC) and the Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure.
“Once the proposal was independently examined, deliberated upon and consciously approved by the competent authorities, the ultimate decision became an institutional decision and not the unilateral act of Accused 1 (Mr. Philip) and Accused 2 (Mr. Warjukar),” it said.
The court also said the agency had failed to produce any evidence of quid pro quo or illegal gratification.
Taking note of the evidence before it, the court said the prosecution had failed to prove that any of the transactions involved deception, fraudulent inducement, dishonest intention at the inception, wrongful gain, wrongful loss, unlawful consideration or any clandestine agreement amongst the accused.
“There is no evidence that MSMCL was induced to part with any property or valuable security on account of any alleged deception, nor is there any evidence that any accused public servant entered into an agreement with SHEL to commit an illegal act or to accomplish a lawful act by illegal means.
“The foundational ingredients of the offences of cheating and criminal conspiracy, thus, remain wholly unestablished,” the court said.
It said the prosecution had failed to prove that the declaration of SHEL as technically eligible constituted criminal misconduct by Philip and the incorporation of certain clauses in the November 2009 JVA constituted criminal misconduct or a conspiracy by Mr. Philip and Mr. Warjukar.
The court said there was no evidence that any of the subsequent transactions undertaken by SHEL, its affiliates and others established the offences of cheating, criminal conspiracy or any other offence alleged in the 2018 chargesheet filed by the CBI.
“Both the accused persons are entitled to be acquitted for the respective offences under which they were charged. Accordingly, both of them are ordered to be acquitted,” the court said.
Published – July 14, 2026 04:17 pm IST
