SFIO’s dismal show - Corporate Fraud body Fumbles & Tumbles

by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group

New Delhi, Nov. 22

If the Enforcement Directorate could secure 14 convictions only in 15 years, the track record of another prime agency to fraud corporate houses is no better. The Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) under the overall supervision of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs is dismal if not disastrous. The SFIO is pretty independent in its function, having the powers to arrest and conduct even searches. The government had set up SFIO to deal with serious frauds by corporation houses and companies. 

Data accessed by Lokmat showed that the SFIO probed as many as 132 companies during the year 2017-18. But it could complete the investigation only in five cases. The record next year was no good when it could complete probes in 12 cases though it initiated inquiries into 83 companies. The worst came in 2019-20 when 361 companies were probed and only in 12 cases the probe was completed.

In response to a question in Lok Sabha by Dushyant Singh of the BJP, Corporate Affairs Minister Anurag Thakur disclosed that investigation of 92 cases are being probed by the SFIO. This did not include 6 cases where stay has been granted by courts.

However, he ducked the question which asked the minister details of top 50 cases of fraudulent companies in terms of the amount involved. Thakur did not reveal the amount involved saying the “gradation of cases under investigation in terms of the amount involved could be known after the completion of investigation of these cases”.

In a response to another question, the government claimed that of the 1182 complaints filed as many as 462 complaints have been disposed of and secured conviction in 326 cases.

But the cat was out of the bag soon when the record of past three years of SFIO’s performance were accessed. The details of investigations completed during the past three years are given here: 

The Rising clout of Anurag Thakur

by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group

The Rising clout of Anurag Thakur

Harish Gupta

New Delhi, Oct 31 

Gods are finally smiling on the young Minister of State for Finance & corporate Affairs Anurag Thakur and his clout is rising by the day in the party. He was in political wilderness for all these years despite being the three term Lok Sabha MP. He was a minister hopeful in the first Modi government but missed the bus because his father Prem Kumar Dhumal was Chief Minister. So far so good. When Dhumal lost election last year, it was expected that he will be rehabilitated. But the luck was not on his side. He had also lost the post of the Chairman BCCI under the Lodha Committee dispensation. But times have changed ever since he was inducted in the Modi. 2 government. His big clout came to the fore when he played a key role in getting Saurabh Ganguly elected as the new president of the BCCI. His younger brother became the treasurer while Amit Shah's son Jay Shah became Board's Secretary. It was his proximity with Amit Shah and performance that is now paying rich dividends. It was Anurag Thakur who played a key role in ensuring the defection of Neeraj Shekhar from SP to BJP. Neeraj is part of Young Parliamentarians group comprising of Supriya Sule, Nishikant Dubey, Dushyant Chautala and from other parties. It was Anurag Thakur who brokered the deal with Dushyant Chautala, president of the JJP whose party won 10 Assembly seats in Haryana. Since BJP was looking for a stable government after securing only 40 seats, Anurag Thakur held a marathon meeting with Dushyant who came to his 18 Janpath residence and then they drove to Amit Shah's house. The party chief was so desperate for the deal that he return to the Capital from Ahemdabad midway to seal the deal. This was a phenomenal rise for Dushyant too who had lost Lok Sabha polls in May 2019 and was fighting a bitter battle for survival with his uncle Abhay Chautala of INLD.

Politically, its a deadly combination of non Jats and Jats in Haryana with BJP leading it from the front. The BJP returned to power despite losing majority. This enhanced Anurag Thakur's clout and clearly, among the BJP's young ministers in the Union Ministers he has emerged a favoruite.

Ends  

Modi invoked new rule to keep “Family” out

by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group

Modi invoked new rule to keep “Family” out

No two tickets in one family

Birender Singh, Jagdish Mukhi, Sinha upset

Harish Gupta

New Delhi, April 9

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has not only strictly implemented the rule that no leader above the age of 75 years be given the Lok Sabha but also invoked a new “No Family Promotion” clause as well.

If 16 senior party leaders including L K Advani, M M Joshi, Sumitra Mahajan, Kariya Munda and others were denied tickets, no new family member or two members of the same family will be given the tickets.

Many senior party leaders have become victims of Modi's this new rule too. Modi had made it clear to even BJP's Gandhis - Maneka and Varun- that only one of them will get the ticket and the other family member should work for the party. Both are sitting MP s of the Lok Sabha and Maneka Gandhi is is a Minister in the Modi government. It transpires that party president Amit Shah and Surface Transport & Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari pleaded that exception should be made in her case. It was also pointed out that Anurag Thakur and Dushyant Singh have been given tickets while Vansundhararaje scindia is sitting MLA. The rule may be made applicable in new cases. Modi made it clear no new family kith & kin will get the ticket if father or mother is active in politics. It was due to this very rule that Assam Governor Jadgish Mukhi had to eat the humble pie. Jagdish Mukhi, a senior Delhi BJP leader wanted Lok Sabha ticket for his son to be given a Lok Sabha from Delhi. But he was told that he would have to quit the post and declare political retirement. Similarly, Minister for Steel Chaudhary Birender Singh is hugely disappointed that his son was refused entry into the electoral arena. His son Birjender Singh is an IAS officer and wants to join the BJP to fight from Rohtak or Hisar. But the BJP was not in a mood to allow senior leader Birender Singh to quit to make room for his son when he is still 73 years. Even his wife is an MLA from Haryana. Therefore, he should wait for sometime. Modi's new policy that no two persons will be given ticket made several others unhappy. R K Sinha, a sitting BJP MP of the Rajya Sabha and close confidante of PM Modi wanted his son Rituraj Sinha to be fielded from Patna Sahib Lok Sabha seat. The seat had fallen vacant after Shatrughan Sinha became a rebel and denied the ticket. When Sinha met senior BJP leaders and tried to convince them that Rituraj will win the seat due to various factor, he was told that “family rule clause” is preventing the ticket to his son. Sensing the PM's tough stand, the leaders from states revised their proposals and withdrew all proposals to give tickets to kith & kin.

Ends 

BJP Moves privilege motion against Rahul on Rafale

by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group

BJP Moves privilege motion against Rahul on Rafale

Speaker to decide its fate tomorrow

BJP knocks at Ethics committee door too

Harish Gupta

New Delhi, Dec 17

The BJP on Monday launched a massive offensive against Congress president Rahul Gandhi by moving a privilege motion against him for misleading the Lok Sabha by “utterly false statement” on the Rafale deal.

The four ruling party MP s moved the 2-page privilege motion against Rahul gandhi for his statement made in the Lok Sabha on July 20, 2018 which was nothing but “figment of imagination, incorrect and utterly false”. The MP s charged Rahul Gandhi of misleading the House and held him guilty of Breach of Privilege of Parliament.

The MP s also filed a separate petition before the Ethics Committee of the Lok Sabha against Rahul Gandhi saying that his conduct was unbecoming of the MP as he is spreading falsehood in the country despite a clear verdict of the Supreme court on the Rafale deal.

The MP s quoted Rahul Gandhi of saying, “In the Rafale aircraft deal, the UPA government agreed to purchase the aircraft at Rs 520 crores. We do not know what happened and who was spoken to. The Prime Minister went to France but who went with him, the whole country knows. By a magic, the aircraft started costing Rs 1600 crores.”

The MP s said that the above statement is entirely untrue. For reasons of national security, the Government of India has not given out the exact details but has already indicated that the price of the basic aircraft is 9% cheaper and the price of the weaponised aircraft is 20% cheaper compared to the prices being negotiated by the UPA.

The MP s said that this falsehood has been knowingly uttered by him deliberately” and therefore, the motion has been moved.

However, sources say nothing much can be achieved by this motion as the previous privilege motion submitted in the same Rafale deal is still pending with the Speaker of the Lok Sabha.

The four BJP Mps are Nishikant Dubey, Anurag Thakur, Dr Sanjay Jaiswal and Prahlad Patel. If the motion is accepted by the Speaker, it will go to privileges committee of the Lo Sabha headed by first term BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi. But the fate of the motion is unlikely to be decided by the House as it will adjourn on January and will meet for the interim budget on January 30 and adjourn sine die on February 15.

Ends