Bribery charges against Cognizant, L&T: FIR lodged with ACB

“Frivolous and motivated FIR was filed in Pune today. Hon’ble Bombay High Court after hearing the advocates of the complainant, the state government and L&T has stayed the FIR today,” said a spokesperson for L&T. A statement from Cognizant read, “We do not comment on sub-judice matters. Cognizant is committed to complying with the law in all its jurisdictions of operations.”

ACB’s Assistant Commissioner of Police (Administration) Nitin Jadhav in a statement said, “Following the directives from the honourable court to register an offence and conduct a probe, an offence has been registered at the Bundgarden police station on Wednesday. ACP Sudam Pachorkar has been assigned the case.” In March, Singh had moved the Pune court through his lawyers seeking directions to the ACB. An order in this regard was passed by Additional Sessions Judge S B Hedaoo on April 19.

While citing the plea by Singh, the April 19 court order said, “Cognizant Technologies Solutions India Pvt Ltd is a subsidiary company of Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation, USA. For business expansion, the subsidiary company in India decided to build offices in Chennai and at Hinjewadi. The construction contract by the Indian subsidiary company was given to L&T. Some environmental clearance and planning permits were essential at Pune and Chennai, respectively, as communicated by L&T to this US subsidiary company. L&T further communicated that some bribe amount is required to be paid to government servants at both places to obtain those permits and environmental clearances. It is alleged that both the Indian subsidiary company and main company in the USA agreed for the same and asked L&T to pay the bribe to the concerned public servant of various authorities with promise to reimburse that bribe after getting all the clearances.”

The court order further cites, “It is alleged in the complaint that in 2013-2014, a bribe of 7,70,000 dollars was reimbursed by the Indian subsidiary company to L&T….Some time in 2016 in the internal audit of the parent company in the USA this fraud was detected. The parent company in the USA conveyed this fact to the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC). Before this statutory authority, the Department of Justice of the USA prosecuted the parent company and the parent company admitted his offence and undertook to pay the penalty of 25 million dollars to the US government by entering into a settlement of deferment of prosecution under US law.”

The court states in the order, “The reference of Pune transaction finds place in said SEC order. So, there is sufficient material on record to forward this complaint to ACB Pune. More so when, there is a copy of lease deed of Cognizant India Ltd. With MIDC Hinjewadi disclosing the name of accused No 2 (private person) acting for that Indian company….As far as Section 19 of Prevention of Corruption Act is concerned, since all the government officers are unknown and the same would require ground investigation, I hold that unless the offence is registered against unknown government officers, this matter would not move even an inch further….Complaint is forwarded to ACB, Pune under Section 156(3) of CrPC for investigation. ACB, Pune is directed to investigate these allegations and submit a report about the result of such investigation.”

Earlier this month, Singh had filed a contempt application in the court after the ACB did not register the FIR initially. Singh’s lawyers said on Wednesday the contempt application stands ‘withdrawn as not pressed’ because now that ACB has filed an FIR. Singh is represented by advocates Harshad Nimbalkar, Pratik Rajopadhye and Rohan Nahar.