Mumbai, Aug. 12: Ram Jethmalani, counsel for Reliance Natural Resources Ltd, today told Mumbai High Court that Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani should be prosecuted for a criminal breach of trust for violating the terms of the memorandum of understanding under which Dhirubhai Ambani’s empire was carved up in 2006.

The two companies are locked in a dispute over gas supply from RIL’s Krishna-Godavari fields to feed younger brother Anil’s power projects.

Jethmalani said the gas supply pact of January 12, 2006, was not a negotiated contract and that it was between Mukesh Ambani and Mukesh Ambani as he controlled both RIL and RNRL at that time. He added that it also went against the initially agreed terms.

Jethmalani said Sandeep Tandon, who chaired the meeting on January 12, when RNRL was still a subsidiary of RIL, signed the contract on behalf of the entity that eventually went to Anil Ambani.

“The core issue is that the transactions of January 12 were a wanton, gross, criminal breach of trust,” Jethmalani said while submitting that the elder Ambani should be prosecuted for a criminal breach of trust, abatement of forgery and perjury.

RNRL has rejected the gas pact, alleging it does not assure it certainty of tenure, price and even quantity.