NEW DELHI: Indian Oil has suspended a senior executive, who was handling international trade and was a step away from joining the board of the country's largest refiner-marketer, on charges of sharing information with a private company executive.

Sources said Debangshu Ray, who is a general manager in the company's international trade wing and was expecting his letter of appointment as director (research and development), was suspended on Friday.

This is the second high-ranking executive of a state-run oil company to have been suspended. The government last week suspended Shashi Shankar, ONGC's director (technology and field services), for allegedly mishandling and inordinately delaying a tender for specialized safety valves.

This case doesn't appear to be related to the ongoing investigation into thefts of documents from several ministries.

International trade is considered a sensitive department in a refining company. This wing handles the crucial function of buying crude and refined products to make up for shortfall in production and deals with major trading houses as well as other suppliers.

IndianOil is yet to serve a formal charge-sheet on Ray. But sources said he had allegedly been found to have passed on commercial information over phone to an executive of a private company. IndianOil chairman B Ashok did not respond to TOI's text message for a comment.

The identity of the executive, to whom Ray is alleged to have passed on information, or the private firm he was working could not be ascertained. IndianOil buys crude from national oil companies of producer countries under term contracts as well as from open market through spot tenders. It also buys products from domestic private refiners and imports them through global trading houses.

In Shankar's case, the suspension order was issued by the oil ministry since a director is a presidential appointment. In Ray's case, the suspension was ordered by the company brass since as GM, he is an IOC appointee.

The oil ministry had sent Ray's name for director (R&D) after the candidature of government headhunter Public Enterprise Selection Board's (PESB) first choice, B P Das, was rejected.

Sources said Ray's name had been cleared by the Prime Minister's Office as well as the personnel department and an appointment letter appointing him to the IOC board was to be issued any day.

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