Indian court extends detention of aviation official, Reliance exec in bribery case

NEW DELHI: An Indian court on Friday extended the pre-trial detention of an aviation regulator official and a Reliance Industries executive to May 6 in a bribery investigation linked to approvals for drone imports.

India’s top crime-fighting agency said on Sunday it had arrested Mudavath Devula, a deputy director general of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, and Reliance senior vice president Bharat Mathur, accusing them of agreeing to a $16,000 bribe to clear drone import applications by Asteria Aerospace, a unit of billionaire Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance.

The agency did not disclose the supplier of the imports.

The two men appeared briefly before a New Delhi district court on Friday, accompanied by officials from the Central Bureau of Investigation and dressed in formal shirts.

India arrests officials at aviation regulator, Reliance in drone bribery probe

The judge ordered both to remain in judicial custody until May 6.

Devula’s lawyer, K. Kiran Kumar, and Mathur’s counsel, Ashish Batra, told Reuters after the hearing that their clients deny all the allegations.

Reliance has said Mathur was engaged as a consultant and the company neither knew of nor approved “any such unauthorized transaction”.

During Friday’s hearing, Mathur’s lawyer sought access to certain medicines, while Devula requested limited access to his laptop.

Asteria is a subsidiary of Reliance’s digital arm Jio Platforms and describes itself as a drone technology company providing “actionable intelligence from aerial data”.

Asteria’s revenue rose to 400 million rupees ($4.24 million) in fiscal 2024 from 11 million rupees in fiscal 2020.