Dr. Swamy writes to Black Money SIT team to investigate a major scam

Navin Upadhyay

New Delhi

A major scam involving a ₹500 crores (cr)($78.425 million) pay-off made by a big corporate to a dubious Delhi-based politically-connected company, Infraline Technologies, has gone unnoticed so far. Senior BJP leader Subramanian Swamy has written to MB Shah, who heads the Supreme court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) on black money, about this three-year-old kickback deal that could implicate a powerful central minister, and a Mumbai-based business tycoon who has interests in telecom, power and infrastructure sector.

In his letter dated June 16th, Dr. Swamy has said there were are strong evidences including those gathered by both the UK and Indian intelligence networks that the business tycoon transferred ₹500 cr ($78.425 million) to Infraline technologies at its London address for facilitating environment and administrative clearance for mega thermal power projects. Between 2007 and 2012, Infraline Technologies was engaged in liaison activities in Telecom, power, coal, Information technology and oil sector with the help of several well-connected politicians.

While Dr. Swamy has not identified those who might have helped Infraline to help the business tycoon, sources said the name of a union minister is doing the rounds in connection with this scam.

“I hereby request you to launch a probe into the financial activities of the company floated by Yogesh Garg and his wife Shashi Garg and their London operation to unearth a large amount in crores of rupees of black money transmitted illegally to London.”

– Dr. Subramanian Swamy

Floated by one Yogesh Garg, who died in a mysterious accident in 2012, the company’s representatives were caught for stealing sensitive government documents as part of a corporate espionage in February this year. The police on Febraury 23 this year nabbed Lokesh Sharma, an employee of Infraline for allegedly procuring classified documents from the coal and power ministries. During the raid at his residence, the police recovered tons of stolen government documents..

Sharma was part of an elaborate racket run by former journalist Santanu Saikia and energy consultants Prayas Jain, who were also arrested in this case. The police also arrested several executives of Reliance Industries, Essar Group, Cairn India, Jubilant Energy and Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group.

Sharma and others used to bribe government officials, and with their help would open the offices of various ministries after office hours, take Xerox copy of classified documents that could come handy for corporate, and make their way.

The police had also questioned Shashi Garg in connection with corporate espionage being carried out by Lokesh Sharma.

Going by the explosive contents of Dr. Swamy’s letter, it is surprising that the Government has not yet started high-level probe into this scandal when its own intelligence agencies have evidence to ban the culprits. With Dr. Swamy writing to MB Shah, the SIT is bound to look into the matter and get in touch with UK intelligence networks to know more about the money transfer.

If the SIT is prima facie convinced about the authenticity of the information provided by Swamy, then it would have to question Shashi Garg, the industrialist and several others in this case. The business tycoon in question here is known for bribing media houses, journalists and others to suppress stories against it.

Note:

1. The conversion rate used in this article is 1 US Dollar = 63.755 rupees

Dr. Subramanian Swamy’s complaint to SIT Black Money against Infraline Technology June 16,2015-page-001
Dr.Subramanian Swamy’s complaint to SIT Black Money against Infraline Technology June 16,2015-page-002
Dr. Subramanian Swamy’s complaint to SIT Black Money against Infraline Technology June 16,2015-page-003
Dr.Subramanian Swamy’s complaint to SIT Black Money against Infraline Technology June 16,2015-page-004
Dr. Subramanian Swamy’s complaint to SIT Black Money against Infraline Technology June 16,2015-page-005
Dr.Subramanian Swamy’s complaint to SIT Black Money against Infraline Technology June 16,2015-page-006
Dr. Subramanian Swamy’s complaint to SIT Black Money against Infraline Technology June 16,2015-page-007
Dr.Subramanian Swamy’s complaint to SIT Black Money against Infraline Technology June 16,2015-page-008
Dr. Subramanian Swamy’s complaint to SIT Black Money against Infraline Technology June 16,2015-page-009
Dr.Subramanian Swamy’s complaint to SIT Black Money against Infraline Technology June 16,2015-page-010

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Navin Upadhyay

Navin is a senior journalist with years of experience in covering India’s Capital city. His keen observations and ability to create the big picture from disparate pieces of information is invaluable.

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