Mumbai: MRA Marg police have registered a case on Tata Power Company Ltd’s complaint that it was allegedly cheated of around Rs 95 crore in a proposed coal mining project in Russia. The FIR names eight accused, including British Virgin Islands-registered Kleros Capital Partners Ltd, its representatives and two former Tata Power employees.According to the complaint, Kleros approached Tata Power in April 2013 with a proposal to develop a coal mining project in Russia. Its directors, Bobodh Palit and Ingafer McLuson, claimed that substantial coal reserves were available and mining licences could be obtained at a low cost. They also assured Tata Power that coal could be supplied to its Mundra power plant at around $50 per metric tonne.The complaint alleged that Kleros projected a requirement of $175 million for the project, although Tata Power later discovered that the mining licence originally cost around $300,000.Tata Power eventually secured the licence through a Russian govt auction in Dec 2017 for approximately $4 million but decided to abandon the project in Nov 2020.The complaint further alleged that two former employees, Vivek Sharma and Shree Narayan Patnaik, leaked confidential company emails, documents and legal papers to Kleros. The dispute reached the Singapore International Arbitration Centre, which directed Tata Power to pay $490 million. The company alleged that forged documents and false information were used in the proceedings.
