<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">The Delhi High Court today directed the CBI to positively file its status report by July 18 on the ongoing inquiry into allegations that BSNL officials caused a loss of about Rs 1,000 crore to the exchequer.</span></div>''<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;"><br />''</div>''<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">A bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar allowed the CBI plea seeking time to file the report.</div>''<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;"><br />''</div>''<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">CBI counsel Sanjeev Bhandari submitted that the preliminary enquiry (PE) into the matter was at an advanced stage.</div>''<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;"><br />''</div>''<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">To this, the bench said, a status report be filed positively before the next date of hearing, i.e. July 18.</div>''<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;"><br />''</div>''<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">The court was hearing a plea by NGO Telecom Watchdog, which sought an investigation into allegations that BSNL officials caused loss of about Rs 1,000 crore to the exchequer by releasing unauthorised payment to the subsidiary of a Chinese firm by fabricating documents.</div>''<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;"><br />''</div>''<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">The BSNL has refuted the allegations.</div>