Ace Advisor of Lalu and part of PC’s Fantastic Four – P2

Part 1 of this series is titled The Art of serving Politicians and enriching thyself. This is Part 2.

Lalu’s Ace Advisor

The Whistleblower (WB) describes the relationship between several people as shown in Figure 1.

In the previous episode, I had mentioned how Lalu had appointed Mr S P Tekriwal, the brother of Abhishek’s father-in-law, Bhagwan Das Tekriwal, as the Finance Minister in his Cabinet. According to the whistleblower, this was Lalu’s way of repaying his “ace advisor”[1].

B D Tekriwal had three daughters and one son – Swapna, Shabnam, Seema, and Shishir.

Ramesh is married to Swapna, L K Agrawal to Seema and Shishir is their brother-in-law.

Abuse of power by Ramesh Abhishek (RA)

1. PGurus has written about how the Supreme Court came down on the dubious decision of merging Financial Technologies India Limited (FTIL) with National Spot Exchange Limited (NSEL). The judgment made scathing remarks on why it saw this merger move as a private interest rather than a public interest[2]. A list of 15 questions sent to him on his role as the Chairman of the Forward Markets Commission (FMC) has still not been answered by him[3].
2. The WB alleges that while RA was hounding Jignesh Shah and his group companies using the state machinery, a commodities broker used to send monies to his daughter, Vaneesa Abhishek Agrawal, substantially in cash and partly in cheque for some legal advice. That was just one instance. Several commodity brokers and mill owners were giving money to not have swift action taken against them and instead train the government’s guns at FTIL, MCX, and Shah. According to the WB, RA is ruthless and does not rest until the enemy is decimated.
3. The WB says that RA’s co-brother, L K Agrawal also has colorful tastes and allegedly helps RA by using various IRS officers to do dealings. Both their wives are known to be high-flying, jet setting types, staying in five-star hotels and making frequent trips abroad.

Previous complaint by IPS Atul Verma

4. In 2014, Atul Varma, an officer of Indian Police Service (IPS), who was working with Ramesh Abhishek at Forward Markets Commission (FMC) at Mumbai had filed a complaint with CBI regarding Ramesh using commodities brokers and paying his daughter in her legal practice. He wrote to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Office of the Chief Vigilance Commissioner (CVC). In his ‘plaint, he had alleged that Vaneesa was one of the conduits for bribes to RA. The WB writes that in an act of serendipity, two bank accounts of Vaneesa in the ICICI Bank and IDBI Bank, both in the South Bombay branch, were closed. Likewise, RA closed an account in the Cayman Islands, he alleges.

Corruption and Bribery

5. Swapna Abhishek, wife of Ramesh Abhishek, was also gifted some diamonds worth crores by a commodities broker in Mumbai on or around the second week of March 2016 which were kept by him through his wife in his daughter’s lockers at IDBI Bank, Bandra Kurla Complex Mumbai. This must be thoroughly examined, claims the whistleblower.
6. RA got his daughter married off in 2014, just before the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) had come to power. Several commodities brokers and dubious businessmen were invited for the wedding that will show his linkages, closeness, and dealings with them and an examination of the list of guests and invitees, photographs and videos will evidence it, writes the WB.

Real estate holdings, as alleged by the WB

7. L K Agrawal, being a tax official, through his friends and networks knew how to manage cash. His Benami properties including with N D Developers Mumbai must be investigated.
8. Ashish Deora (a builder and businessman belonging to the Aurum Ventures Mumbai group) regularly sends monies to Ramesh Abhishek / Vaneesa Abhishek Agrawal so that he is helped out by Ramesh Abhishek through the use of his position and connections. Deora is presently being investigated by the CBI for various criminal offences including bribing some of the public officials such as a SEBI Appellate Tribunal (SAT).
9. Deora sends cash every month to Swapna Abhishek and formally provides a petty amount in Vaneesa Abhishek Agrawal’s account in the name of legal consultancy. Both families have taken many trips together and Ashish Deora has also funded some of the foreign trips of Ramesh Abhishek’s family. From their passport details, their multiple trips can be verified. Ashish Deora also holds two benami properties for Ramesh Abhishek and L K Agarwal.

One of Chidambaram’s Fantastic Four

10. The role of Ramesh Abhishek is listed in great detail in the series on C-Company[4]. He, with Ajay Shah (AS) and K P Krishnan (KP), and their head honcho P. Chidambaram (PC) was the Fantastic Four of the Finance Ministry in India during the UPA period. PC and AS would dictate how FMC should be run and RA would abide by their wishes. With the help of KP, he moved the FMC from the aegis of Ministry of Consumer Affairs to the Ministry of Finance. PC put up the note to the then President Pranab Mukherjee in September 2013. RA became the FMC Chairman in September 2012.
11. By March/ April 2014, his tenure should have ended and he should have been repatriated back to Bihar. But RA and PC were so close that his term as FMC Chairman was extended an unprecedented five times! This is unheard of in the history of Bureaucratic India. This despite the Bihar government calling him back!
12. When the NDA government came to power in 2014, RA used his influence with the Odisha lobby and got himself posted to the Cabinet Secretariat as Secretary, Performance Management. When the FMC was merged with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), he was harboring hopes of becoming the Chairman of SEBI. But a timely intervention by Dr. Subramanian Swamy nixed his hopes[5]. Swamy alleged that PC wanted a friend as the Chairman of SEBI so that he can be protected in the investigation of financial scandals that he (PC) is involved in.

Continued…

References:

[1] Ramesh Abhishek: Lalu’s ace advisor under scanner – Sep 28, 2017, TenNews.in

[2] ‘Dabangg’ former FMC chief Ramesh Abhishek in the dock as SC scraps NSEL – 63 Moons merger – May 11, 2019, PGurus.com

[3] FMC and Ramesh Abhishek – A Thousand Lies Can’t Cover Up The Real Truth – Apr 21, 2019, PGurus.com

[4] C-Company: How Jignesh Shah became the No.1 target of P. Chidambaram – 2017-18, PGurus.com

[5] Aircel-Maxis scam: PC mobilizing friendly politicians to subvert CBI probe: Swamy – Feb 5, 2016, The Pioneer