We, in India, are used to Politicians hushing up scams, doctoring evidence, out right rolling the issue under the carpet or even doctoring the FIRs.
A record of sorts in the world was created when the Deli’s Anti Corruption Branch refused to take action against Union Minister in the Reliance Gas Price fixing case.
Shinde, Home Minister, India
Read the degradation of Democracy.
NEW DELHI: In a U-turn, Delhi Government‘s Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) has refused to probe a complaint of “misuse” of official position by a Union Minister as it was beyond its jurisdiction.
Incidentally, the ACB had last week registered an FIR against Petroleum Minister Veerappa Moily, RIL Chief Mukesh Ambani, former Union Minister Murli Deora and retired Director General of Hydrocarbons V K Sibal among others on Reliance gas pricing issue.
I have written some posts,about 80, filed under Radia Tapes,Karunanidhi providing a detailed analysis of the 2 G scam and the other criminality involved.
It has taken years for the Supreme Court of India to realize that there has been sleaze all around.
The Corruption, manipulation and absolute misuse of Government machinery by the Corporate Houses is mind-boggling confirming the fact that the country is for the taking by the moneyed, aided by the Bureaucrats and politicians.
2 G Scam triggers more probes
Now the Supreme Court has asked the CBI to investigate some more case, which involves Corporate and the Income Tax Department.
It has come to light, which should have been at the first instance of listening to the Tapes,that there have been more deals fixed by Radia than the mere 2 G fraud.
Income Tax department went out-of-the-way to favor her, even after the 2G Scam surfaced and the trial was on!
These are the cases , where the Supreme Court case feels that there is a prima facie ground for a detailed inquiry.
‘ It is that the court has prima-facie found sufficient reason for a more detailed probe into these deals. They are:
* Supply of low-floor buses by Tata Motors to Tamil Nadu Government under the Centre’s JNNURM scheme
* Appointment of Pradip Baijal, ex-chairman of TRAI, as chairman Pipeline Advisory Committee
* Allotment of coal blocks to Anil Ambani Group’s Sasan Ultra Mega Power Project
* Allotment of iron ore mines at Ankua, Singhbhum district of Jharkhand, to Tata steel
* Favours shown by V K Sibal, then Director General of Hydrocarbon to RIL and quid pro quo received
* Fudging of subscribers base/record by Reliance Communication, ADAG company and submission of the same to Bombay Stock Exchange and TRAI to save money
* Working of touts middlemen and kickbacks in the aviation sector
* Market manipulation and hammering of stocks of Unitech
“The conversations between Ms Nira Radia and her associates with various persons suggest that unscrupulous elements have used corrupt means to secure favours from the Government officers, who appear to have acted for extraneous considerations,” the bench said as it set a 60-day deadline for the CBI to look into the controversial deals.
Besides, the bench has also sent notice to the chief vigilance officer, ministry of mines, for taking appropriate action on “allotment of iron ore mine to Reliance ADAG group without having any steel plant.”
A Chartered Accountant, who was working as a tout of the IT department is to be probed as well(PTI in Twitter)
These scams are like Sindbad’s story, never-ending.
I am sure nothing will come out of this. excepting some high decibel debates in the News Channels, a farce of an enquiry and the corruption juggernaut rolls on.
More on this from Business Standard.
The court has ordered Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) inquiry into 14 most serious cases, involving top industrialists and bureaucrats. One issue, which relates to corruption/malpractice in judiciary/judges/tribunals, etc, has been referred to the Chief Justice of India, while another, on “allotment of iron ore mine to Reliance ADA group without having any steel plant”, will be looked into by the Chief Vigilance Officer of the mines ministry.
These issues were brought out in two reports prepared at the instance of the court, one consisting of officials from the Department of Revenue of the finance ministry and the other by an inter-ministerial committee. They had prepared 17 such issues. (SC ORDER EXPLAINED)
A Bench of judges G S Singhvi and Justice V Gopal Gowda directed CBI to make inquiries and file its report within two months.
CBI’s reports will be given to a new Bench on December 16 that will not include Justice Singhvi, who retires on December 11.
The issues to be probed include favours allegedly shown to top corporate houses like Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Ltd, Anil Ambani’s Reliance ADA Group and the Tatas, working of touts, kickbacks in the aviation sector, manipulation of Unitech’s stocks and illegal gratification paid to tax officers.
Holding that the taped conversations suggest “unscrupulous elements have used corrupt means to secure favours from government officers”, the court has directed the probe on various issues, including “favours” shown by V K Sibal, the then director general of hydrocarbons, to RIL and quid-pro-quo received. It has also ordered a CBI probe into the allotment of coal blocks to the Sasan ultra mega power project, run by Reliance ADA Group, and allotment of Iron ore mines at Ankua, in Singhbhum District of Jharkhand to Tata Steel.”
While the Media attention is focused on Raja and co for the scam, the beneficiaries,especially Reliance Industries seems to go unnoticed(?) by the Media.
Seems that media is being selective and the Government and the Opposition have selective amnesia.
You can not bite the hand that feeds.
Story:
DoT issued UASL licenses to Datacom (now renamed as Videocon Telecommunications) to roll out pan – India telecom services, along with free spectrum of 4.4 mega hertz. It was clear that Datacom never had requisite resources to roll out its services on its own. It has therefore concocted a unique way to deceive the Government.
On paper and publicly, Datacom Solutions was always disclosed to be a joint venture between Videocon Group owned by Dhoots and HFCL Group owned by Mr. Nahata and Maloo.
A. Datacom availed illegal benefits aggregating Rs. 17,600 Crores-undue favours by DoT
Background – Order of the Hon’ble Supreme Court
The Hon’ble Supreme Court of India, vide its order dated 10lh February, 2011 allowed time upto 1st March, 2011, for CBI to submit as to what action has been taken against the beneficiaries of alleged telecom sector irregularities, who prima facie appear to have conspired for causing loss to public revenue.
Datacom was issued telecom licenses at the price of 2001
Datacom, now called Videacon Communications, was issued 21 UAS Licenses.CAG report dated 8th November, 2010 observed that the aggregate loss caused to the national exchequer by issue of 122 new UAS Licenses in 2008 at 2001 price was Rs, 1,02,498 crore.
(Refer Para No. 4.7 page No. 37-42 of CAG Report dated 8th November, 2010)
As per CAG calculations, the loss to public exchequer on account of issue of licenses and allotment of spectrum attributable to Datacom is over Rs. 17,600 crore…..
A. Datacom availed illegal benefits aggregating Rs. 17,600 Crores-undue favours by DoT
Background – Order of the Hon’ble Supreme Court
The Hon’ble Supreme Court of India, vide its order dated 10lh February, 2011 allowed time upto 1st March, 2011, for CBI to submit as to what action has been taken against the beneficiaries of alleged telecom sector irregularities, who prima facie appear to have conspired for causing loss to public revenue.
Datacom was issued telecom licenses at the price of 2001
Datacom, now called Videacon Communications, was issued 21 UAS Licenses.CAG report dated 8th November, 2010 observed that the aggregate loss caused to the national exchequer by issue of 122 new UAS Licenses in 2008 at 2001 price was Rs, 1,02,498 crore.
(Refer Para No. 4.7 page No. 37-42 of CAG Report dated 8th November, 2010)
As per CAG calculations, the loss to public exchequer on account of issue of licenses and allotment of spectrum attributable to Datacom is over Rs. 17,600 crore.
B. Oswal Agro Group, which was not part of the initial application, was made 10% equity holder – which contributed over 92% of the net worth
Datacom per-se did not have the requisite net worth to meet the eligibility criteria and was ineligible for issuance of UASL. However, after making the application for the license, Datacom issued 10% equity to Oswal Fertilizers & Chemicals Limited of Oswal Agro Group.
The shareholding pattern submitted by Datacom to DoT was as under (Refer Annexure 1):
It is shocking that the shareholding of Oswal Fertilizers & Chemicals Limited was only 10% but its networth used for the purpose of meeting eligibility criteria was 92.2%…
The KKR owner hardly needs an introduction. However, the other equally important owner of KKR is not talked about much. SRK’s partner is Jay Mehta. He is Juhi Chawla’s husband and is a British origin industrialist.
Apart from the much talked about Preity Zinta and Ness Wadia, the team is co-owned by Karan Paul, chairman of Apeejay Surrendra group and Mohit Burman of Dabur.
The team is owned by India Cements which is headed by N. Srinivasan. He is also involved in the BCCI and AICF i.e. the All India Carrom and Chess Federations.
Deccan Chargers.
The team is owned by the Deccan Chronicle corporation. Gayatri Reddy, daughter of media baron T Venkattaram Reddy, heads the workings of the team and is very impressive at her job.
Another team owner that needs no introduction is liquor baron Vijay Mallya. He placed the second highest bid at the IPL auction, next only to Mukesh Ambani.
Rajasthan Royals.
Though the majority of limelight is hogged by Shilpa Shetty and husband Raj Kundra, the actual owner of the team is Manoj Badale, the co-founder of Blenheim Chalcot. Other investors in the team include Lachlan Murdoch, Aditya S Chellaram and Suresh Chellaram.
The fiery team is owned by GMR Group. The business group’s core area lies in airports, highways, agriculture and energy. The corporation is owned by G. M. Rao.
Kochi Tuskers Kerala.
The newest team to be initiated into IPL is owned by Rendezvous Sports World. It is a consortium made up of multiple companies. The group bought the team for an exorbitant amount of $333 million.
Pune Warriors India.
Last but not the least, Pune Warriors was bought by Subrata Roy of Sahara Group for $378.2 million, which is the highest amount ever paid for a team in IPL. Subrata Roy has also written books on philosophy of life and is well-known for his philanthropic works.
While the Spectrum scam tapes have been talked about, what has not received adequate notice so far is the lobbying and controversy surrounding the division of gas between theAmbani brothers. The conversations in this set seemingly include journalists Vir Sanghvi of the Hindustan Times; Prabhu Chawla of the India Today group; and G. Ganapathy Subramaniam and M.K. Venu of the Economic Times…
M.K.Venu.
While we are yet to fully absorb and understand the various intricacies and ramifications of the very many conversations on record, and clearly, there are many serious issues at stake here including those of privacy (who authorised these taps), timing of their made public and on-going corporate wars but it is eerie how casually a discussion, for example, about the battle for power sector involving Tatas and Reliance in Maharashtra segues into instigating the likes of Shiv Sena and other groups like the MNS and how easily corporates play and manoeuvre the “protests” by goon-gangs of political outfits to further their ends.
Also, how easy it seems for these power-brokers to casually fix not just politicians — e.g.Venkaiah Naidu of the BJP here is mentioned as amenable to persuasion, as against Arun Shourie, for example — but also, in their narration, the higher judiciary.
Some of the abbreviations:
MM: Manoj Modi, Mukesh Ambani‘s right hand man in Reliance
Following files said to be K. Venugopal, Editor, Hindu Business Line
Vinu-fudged RCOM figs-gas-Curse on AmarSingh-20090616-200515 &
Vinu perhaps-All issues-mainly spectrum-20090616-195137
The file-names below are as in the CD handed over to the Supreme Court. They seem to follow the format of the date and time of the recording in the file name, thus -20090620-143207 seems to refer to a recording of 14:32:07 on 20 June, 2010.
M.K. Venu: You saw Rohini’s story. It has come today.
Niira Radia: No, I haven’t seen it. I’m going to see it now. I finished at 1.30 in the night.
MK: But it’s all tucked away. You’re also keeping Manoj Modi’s timings. 2 o’ clock!
NR: It’s tucked away, is it?
MK: Yeah, but in ET you can’t miss it. It is the inside page but it’s the top half, the lead story of the page.
NR: You know this one, Ganapathy has been chasing me but I don’t want to give it to him. I have a letter from the Andhra chief minister.
MK: Hmm.
NR: I don’t want to give it to him, I am scared to give it and find the story killed. What do you think I should do? He has given a scathing attack. He has written to the PM.
MK: The Andhra CM. Two years ago, he used to sing Anil Ambani’s tune. It is a very strong letter, yaar.
NR:Kya karoon yaar. I don’t want it tucked away.
MK: Objective advice. Isko aise akhbar ko do jo isko lead flyer carry kare. Isko CNBC ko do. Then these people will be adequately provoked. If CNBC carries it as a lead 10 times a day, then everyone will start running helter skelter. If I was the editor, Rohini’s story was a clean Page 1, top half, like a lead story. Do you think a letter to the MD is possible? Broadly saying that we congratulate the launch of ET Now and then you can raise this issue that there is this raging controversy that is of national interest and we hope you can take which is, you know, which is in keeping with what Y.S.R. Reddy has written. Aisa karke you should lagao one.
NR: How is Prabhakar Sinha in Times?
MK: My information is that he and his brother Arun Kumar are retainers on the other side. About Arun Kumar, I am quite sure. He and Sandeep Bamzai used to be so openly partisan. I met Shekhar Bhatia at dinner, he used to be executive editor then, he told Sandeep Bamzai ki kam se kam ek hafta to chhod do. At least three to six months, you don’t plug him. This is what Shekhar Bhatia told him publicly.
NR: Yes, I don’t blame him. I met Sukumar and Sanjoy Narayan.
MK: That Sanjoy Narayan has an old friendship with that Tony (Jesudasan), na? They have some great common interests.
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