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Scams that shook India

Corruption is a political and economic disaster which causes social inequality and economic efficiency, any incidence of corruption shows that the government is not working towards public welfare. corruption is hindrance in goals of growth, poverty alleviation and control of inflation scams in India are discovered every day and most of these scams are committed by people belonging to elite class of businessmen and politicians.

There is a special law i.e. extradition law in place for those culprits who absconds the country after committing their scam in the hope of shelter from domestic law. The culprits can be brought under the ambit of Indian law via extradition law and various international treaties signed amongst different countries. Scams like Satyam, 2G, Charaghotala etc have shook India to core leaving people wondering to what is the cure for the poison of corruption.

The corruption termite is feasting upon the nation for far too long, even though country is considered as socialist state it is reduced to a commodity of exploitation. Why should few corrupt people prosper over the cost of whole country??

The Commonwealth Scam

Common Wealth is a multinational sporting event which is held amongst the commonwealth nations. The first of its event was organised in 1930, and since then it is conducted every four years. It Is the third largest sporting event after Olympic and Asian Games. The event is governed by Commonwealth Games Federation. The 54-member nations and 72 teams participated in the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

Embezzlement
The Commonwealth Games were organised in India in the year 2010 and an astonishing amount of Rs. 70000 crores were embezzled from the funds provided for conducting the event by means of inflated contracts, criminal conspiracy, cheating and forgery. The architect of the scandal was Suresh Kalmadi(2010 Pune, Lok Sabha,M.P). He was charged under Prevention of Corruption Act and was arrested along with many others by CBI on 25th April2011. The connection with the contract given to Swiss firms at an inflated rate of 141 crore by rejecting a lower bid of 62 crore from a Spanish firm (MSL).

The government set up a special committee under V.K. Shunglu (former Comptroller and Auditor General of India) The Shunglu Committee and several other agencies like CBI, Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), The Directorate General of Income Tax Investigation, Enforcement Directorate etc. were also involved in the investigation.

In Delhi high court in a case initially, during the proceedings questions was raised whether the organising committee would be covered under the Right To Information Act as it did not comes under the definition of ‘State' as per Article 12 of The Indian Constitution but at a subsequent stage (i.e. on January 2010) Delhi High Court delivered a judgement in the favour of government claiming that The Right To Information Act was applicable on activities in relation to Organising Committee as it was the government who provide finance to conduct various activities. This judgement provided boost to various social activist to expose the scam.

The construction of Shivaji Stadium is one of the leading examples which exposed the fraud committed by the organising committee. The stadium was meant for practice for women's Hockey Team, but due to delay in renovation the place was rendered useless even for practices. The New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) gave the tender to M/s China Railway Shsiju Group Corporation at an estimated price of 11.5 Million US $ which was later negotiated by the group to 23 Million US $.

After getting the tender the company delegated its entire work to M/s Simplex Project Ltd at half price to original. The renovation further includes various corruption activities like CRSGC via SPL imported charges at an inflated rate of 6 to 7 times of the price available in the local market. In the investigation conducted by various bodies, it was found that the delegation by CRSGCto SPL was illegal.

The biggest failure of the event can be seen through the incident of collapse of a bridge near Jawahar Lal Nehru Stadium resulting into injuries of 23 labourers and 5 of them were seriously injured.

Allotment of Tickets
The process of appointing ticket consultant was delayed for 13 months and the marketing tickets was not started till September 2010 due to which a campaign was launched resulting in costs of 6 crores which was unplanned and wasteful expenditure.

Inefficient Sales
The percentage of sale of complementary tickets were a lot higher as compared to earlier edition and there were also a large number of unsold tickets.22900 seats were given complementary which had a market value of 56.6 crores and out of these seats 1/3rd of the seats were of higher value of 50000 each in contract, 7500 of total seats worth 82.54 crores
Tickets valuing 3 crores were sold at 90% discount to the business club of India, which generated no sponsorship revenue.

Supply of Water Dispensers
Water dispensers were purchased by the organising committee at a cost of 3.82 crore. This was an unnecessary expenditure as Coca Cola was to provide mineral water throughout the games under the sponsorship programme and further the Delhi Jal Board also provided water at venues for which an amount of 0.26 crore was payable. An order of 9 silver and gold plaques was placed on 23rd October 2009 by the organising committee at a cost of Rs. 14 Lakh as gift items for QBR launch. Only 72 Plaques were supplied and 52 plaques were shown in records.

At a cost of .34 crore an advertisement was published by the organising committee for justifying the rate of tissue rolls as per box of 100 rolls and not per roll. The information given in the advertisement was misleading.

An excess amount of Rs 13.39 crore was spent by the organising committee on rental rate of pre-fabricated structures at Jawahar Lal Nehru Stadium.

For opening and closing ceremonies a contract of 16.49 crores relating to art direction was given to Blue Lotus Production without any approved list. Many props were not utilised and some of them were not even received like Polo Circles(just a ply piece covered with cloth Rs. 13425 per piece) were bot used.

Sports equipment were also unused at various locations even after the common wealth games were concluded like 10 trampolines costing .34 crores were unused and kept at ITPO store. Two trampolines worth .11 crore were purchased without any event scheduled for the same.

16 storage trollies costing 2.5 crores were procured but never available at Dr SPM Aquatics Complex.

Purchase of Shuttle Cocks
The purchase of shuttle cocks was reckless because a total 2000 dozen shuttle cocks were procured and 1000 dozen of them were rendered useless even before the event commenced and the records show that 1392 dozen shuttle cocks which was 68% of the total purchase worth .16 crore remained unutilised. Further the organising committee placed a 1000 dozen shuttle cocks including 300 dozen speed, 400 dozen speed-2 and 300 dozen speed-3 but the vendor supplied only speed 1 and speed 2 shuttle cocks of the same quantity and the same was accepted.

Delayed Supply of Equipment for Test Events and Training
Gymnastics equipment of Rs. 4.56 crore and aquatics equipment of Rs 1.08 crore were scheduled to be delivered in the period of July to August 2010 but they were delivered in August September 2010. The aforesaid delay caused cancellation of the test events like swimming and high board diving. And due to equipment, some equipment was transported from Pune to Ranchi.

A total of 17.84 crores was incurred on purchase of various forms of protective coverage for grounds and out of that 4500 tiles valuing 2.02 crores and 16 rolls valuing .20 crores remained unutilised because the area fixed for coverage was subsequently reducedafter the issue of RFP.

Scoreboards Structure
The contract for scoreboard supplied by Omega Time was given to Advance Tech Engineering at a cost of 3.4 crores. Scoreboard were installed at only 10 venues out of total 33 venues and the location decided for rugby was changed by Swiss Timing Omega at the very last moments during testing the scoreboard crashes and were re installed thereafter.

Purchase of Low Floor Buses
DTC purchased 2500 low floor buses at an inflated price cited at para 5.26 in the CAG report and further DTC purchased 625 additional buses with an extra expenditure of 6.10 crore by exercising an option clause.

The Renovation and Restoration of Connaught Place
The renovation and restoration project of C.P was subject to undue delay as a result of which the cost of the project reached 671 crores in July 2007 as compared to the original estimated cost of Rs. 76 crores as of May 2005.

Complete Up gradation of Flats
It was seen that only 805 UG and 182 HIG flats were upgraded and transferred to ITDG as opposed to the budgeted number of 2709 flats.


Award of Security Contract for WTP And STP to 122 FS
122 FS was awarded a contract for security arrangements at Game Village at a cost of 0.42 crore which was increased to 0.72 crore in August 2010. The contractors were given contracts without inviting tenders and there were many irregularities

Poor Management of Taxation Issues
It was found that the Organising Committee handled the taxation issues without the advice of any professional consultant.
Organising Committee paid taxes on behalf of 19 contract vendors which amounted to 7.4 crores on a total payment of 134.09 crore
Organising Committee failed to obtain number of vendors within the prescribed time limit as a result of which they had to pay TDS at a higher rate of 20% amounting to 7.10 crore.
The Organising Committee was charged with a penal interest of 2.46 crore due to failure for depositing Service Tax within the prescribed time limit in respect of taxable services given by foreign service provider.
The Organising Committee collected a tax of 0.28 crore but failed to deposit it
The Organising Committee was also made to pay 30.75 crores in respect of unregistered service provider.

Irregular Contracts
Due to poor management of time the contracts were not given to competent vendors which sacrificed transparency, economy, and compliance with the standard procedures. Contracts worth 310.68 crores were distributed without any previous tender offers while 28 contracts worth 356.14 crore were allotted on the basis of single tender. Contract for overlays, waste management and image and look worth Rs. 1253.78 crore were given to vendors disqualified as per EOI/RFP.Even after selection of vendors the signing of contract took severalmonths. The amount of liability is still not honoured even after the culmination if common wealth games. There were many urgent matters which required higher priorities in terms of processing and approval but were not dealt with which resulted in considerable delay.

The Organising Committee members were highly skilled and but still their decision making was highly inadequate. The allotment of contract was done in an arbitrary fashion and ad hoc manner and it was seen the vendors had no concern in relation to administrative function. Documentation done by the Organising Committee was very poorly managed which made it difficult to assure the authenticity and completeness of records. After analysing the minutes, it was discovered that there is undue manipulation. Several contracts were not subjected to taxation and legal advice which made the Organising Committee liable to bear the tax liability of such vendors.

The original budget did not take into account any expenses relating to account any expenses relating to broadcasting, media, and telecom infrastructure. In the absence of such a provision in the budget Prasar Bharti and HTNL acquired funds for development of their personal infrastructure and both these agencies outsourced their work completely.
The budget did not consist of expenses pertaining to Indian team for Common Wealth Games initially, but Rs. 678 crores were latter provided in February 2008.

Documentation
Organising Committee did not follow the proper procedures for documentation as there was proper system within the Organising Committee which provided for filing essential transactions and recording of correspondence with different agencies. The documentation was so poorly managed that there were certain question relating to authenticity and completeness of the records for instance files were not numbered and, in many cases, files only consist of loose sheets and many documents were found missing on sampling basis.

Construction Of 1 M.G.D Sewage Treatment By DJB
The contract for sewage treatment plant was awarded by DJB to UEM India Ltd. for 24.72 crore with the additional cost of 7.2 crore for operation and maintenance of 10 years and it was scheduled to be completed by 2009. There was an extraordinary delay in STP and it was commenced on August 2010 rather than on September 2009 as scheduled without the issue of completion certificate.

The STP planned to receive waste from game village, hotels and Akshardham temple committee but in actual the plant was receiving waste only from Akshardham temple and was utilised only up to 44% to 70% of the total capacity after 31st October 2010 the utilisation of STP was null due to non-evacuation the effluents from the plants as a result of which the sewage waste was directed to Madawal pumping station which was already operating at its full capacity resulting in the deprivation of waste into .

Furniture
ITDC had not installed furniture worth 3.99 crore and 10.31 crore at Games Village and Vasant Kunj respectively and the reasons stated by ITDC was that DDA did not construct the flat within the prescribed time and only few flats were received then promised due to which furniture were supplied in semi constructed flats.

The 2G Scam

In May 2007, A Raja became the Telecom Minister. He was appointed as M.P from Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu. In august 2007 2G Spectrum was to be allotted by department of Telecom. A spectrum is air waves which carries information. It is considered as natural resources because it was not made by humans, it exists in nature by itself and includes features like magnetic, gravitation, electrical property. Spectrum is subject to sale because it is a natural resource and property of the country. For better understanding, suppose the spectrum are invisible roads and all the information like radio and telecommunication travel through these roads.

In 2007 government intended to sell these spectrums and utilize its proceeds in development of country. Availability of spectrum is limited and one spectrum cannot be used for multiple purposes. 2G services were launched in India at 900 mega harts(MHZ). Later 4G services were launched at 1800 MHZ and 3G SERVICES ranges from 900 MHZ to 2100 MHZ. international telecommunication union and agency of telecommunication under the United Nations, responsible for communication of information having its headquarters at Geneva.
On 25thSeptember, 2007 telecom ministry invited telecom companies to purchase spectrum.

On October 1st, 2007 department of telecommunication receive 575 applications from 26 firms. On November 2, 2007 Prime Minister Manmohan Singh wrote a letter to A Raja and asked him to allocate the spectrum at the reasonable prices.

The government proposes to sell the spectrum in two ways.
Firstly, on first come first services, secondly by means of auction Telecom Ministry decided to sell the spectrum on first come first services, the deadline for the sale of spectrum was time and again postponed. Finally, the spectrum was sold to SWAN Telecom, UNITEC and TATA Tally Services. Subsequently, these companies sold the spectrum at much higher rate to Etisalat, Telenor and DoCoMo. The Central vigilance commission asked CBI to investigate the matter. On 14th November, A Raja resigned as telecom minister and Kapil Sibal was appointed as in charge of Telecom Ministry. CBI investigated the beneficiaries of 2G Spectrum.

A Raja was in judicial custody of CBI for four days and later he was sent to Tihar jail. In March 2011, Delhi high court set up a special court to exclusively take cognizance of 2G cases. The CAG Report showed a loss of 1.76 lakh crore. In 2012, the Supreme Court cancelled all the spectrum licenses which were allotted in 2007. On 21st December, 2017 the special court acquits A Raja, Kani mahi and all other accused from the case due to the lack of evidence.

The CBI Judge OT Saini said that the prosecution has failed to prove any charge against the accused. The congress government claimed that there was zero loss in the 2G Spectrum case but in response Arun Jaitley stated that there were corrupt and dishonest practices and that is why Supreme Court squashed all the spectrum cases. The CAG Report whi8ch estimated the loss of 1.76 lakh Crore was way of mark and loss was only 30985 crores.

Colgate Scam

India is always known to be a socialist state where the government has the power to regulate various sectors like coal through five-year plan. This is the very reason coal mining industry was nationalized by the Indian government between 1972 to 1976 with Coal India Ltd. and Singareni collieries company Ltd. in the year 1976 coal mines (Nationalization) amendment Act was passed which terminates the private leases of coal mining.

Thereafter, Parliament allowed certain private companies to hold the lease as it was realized that public coal companies were unable to fulfil the demand. Ministry of coal inn July 1992 directed the constitution of a screening committee whose purpose is to get the proposals screened received from the private companies for captive mining.

Initially a total of 216 coal blocks were allocated by the government to various companies from the year 1993 to 2010 and subsequently the number was reduced to 194. Screening committee gave the first preference to power and steel companies but if a competitive applicant came across then he is required to fulfil the additional guidelines the following are as follows:
  • Production capacity to be stated in application
  • Net worth of the applicant company
  • Track record and financial strength of the company
  • Recommendations of state and administrative authority concerned

The “Colgate Scam” came into limelight in the year 2012 and was conjured by UPA government. India contains many coal deposits which come under the control of government and its excretion is further awarded to several public and private companies by the process of auction. The Auditor Comptroller and General of India accused the UPA government for being allocating the coal blocks without any auction to private companies.

It was also said that the government policies for allocation was not transparent. The loss initially estimated by CAG was 10.6 lakh crore but the actual loss turned out in the Parliament report was 1.86 lakh crore. CBI started investigation on the corruption of allocation of coal blocks on the basis of complaint filed by the Bhartiya Janta Party. On April 2015 CBI lodged fourteen cases involving different individuals and firms like Naveen Jindal and its company JSPL, AMR Iron and steel Pvt. Ltd., Rajend Darda and Vijay Darda (congress M.P), Madhu Coda former Jharkhand C.M.

As a consequence of scam an Inter-Ministerial panel was constituted in the year 2012 by the coal ministry. The purpose of such panel was either to De-allocate the coal blocks which were wrongfully allocated or to forfeiture of bank guarantees. Thereafter, 80 coal blocks were De-allocated and bank guarantees in 42 cases were forfeited.

A Special CBI Court was decided to be established by the Supreme Court where the cases related to scam were to be tried on 24th September 2014 the allocation of blocks was quashed and a bill was passed for the new auction in the Lok Sabha. Special CBI Court held Madhukoda guilty of cheating and criminal conspiracy and Dr. Manmohan Singh said that he will quit the office if he was found guilty.

Irregularities in the scam:
  1. Absence of mechanism end use of coal:
    For distribution of coal to small and medium consumers a new coal distribution policy 2007 was provided but there was no effective mechanism adopted by the coal India Limited to monitor the coal supply by the state nominated agencies and to verify end use of coal. Non-verification not only effects the distribution of coal but also leads to black marketing of coal.
     
  2. Washing of coal
    There is high percentage of ash in the coal produced in India in relation to other major coal producing countries. The need for washing coal become necessary for consistent fuel supply to coking coal and non-coking coal sectors. The washeries available with the coal India limited were not sufficient to meet need the need of washing.

    Therefore, to overcome this issue it was decided by the CIL to set up 2 coal washeries 7 for coking sector and 13 for non-coking sector. The process for production of washed coal by CIL was still under process till 2012 and the reason for delay as given by the Ministry of coal was the clearance by forest and environment department.
     
  3. Reliance on heat:
    A plant with capacity with 4000 MW was developed by reliance power under ultra-mega power project at Sasan in MP. In 2006 two captive coal blocks that is mohar and mohar ahmohri were allotted to the project. Further in the same year a third coal black that is chhatrasal was allotted to sasan plant to meet its requirement of 16 million ton per year. The reliance was developing another power project at chitrangi in MP for which a request was made to PM by chief minister of MP to allow the reliance power to make use of surplus coal from the captive blocks of the sasan. The matter was then forwarded to empowered group of ministers which gave its approval on CM Request.

    The CAG said that surplus use of coal will make Anil Ambani to drive some extra benefit of 29033 crore. The plants set up at chitrangi charged higher tariff of rupees 2.45 – 3.702 in comparison with tariff charge with sasan plant. Though both the plant would get the coal at the same price. CBI Director Ranjit Sinha stated in the Supreme Court in an Affidavit that the status report prepared by the investigating agencies were shared with law minister Ashwani Kumar before presenting it to the court. Ranjit claim was contradictory with the CBI council claim that the report was not share with any member of government. CBI on 29thApril stated that 20% of the status report was changed by the government. Justice R.M Lodha, Madan B Lakur and Kurian joseph directed the CBI to report the court regarding changes made in the report.
     
  4. Satyam Scam
    The Satyam scam took place in the year 2009 by Ramalinga Raju chairman of Satyam computer services with 10 other members astonished the investors and shareholders. They confessed that they had inflated the company's revenue, falsified the company's account and income tax return and fabricated the invoices involving a fraud of 1.47 billion U.S $. Hyderabad court imprisoned the accused for seven years.

    On 13 April 2008 Mahindra and Mahindra purchased 46% of stake of Satyam computer by a public auction. As a result, greater need for securing laws and corporate governance was indispensable for corporate entities. It was the fourth largest IT Company of India and was awarded with Golden Peacock award in the year 2007 and 2009. The name of the company itself suggests truth but it had brought the biggest shame to India by committing fraud.

    Mr. Raju disclosed to the Board of directors that the accounts of the company had been manipulated for several years by 8nderstating the liabilities and showing inflated income. On October 17, 2009 75% of quarterly revenue and 97% of profit were overstated. It was found that Mr. Raju generated 6000 fake salary accounts over the years and appropriated the money after deposited it.

Irregularities in the scam
Raju had a 35% stake at Mytas properties. Satyam computers planned to acquire 51% stake at Mytas. The board approved on 16 December 2008 the proposal for buying stake in Mytas Infrastructure and Mytas properties owned by family members of Ramalinga Raju, for Rs. 1.6 billion as fully owned subsidiary. The proposal was passed without the approval of shareholders and the decision was reversed after 12 hours when the shares of the company were sold by the shareholders and threatened to proceed against the company.

Due to non-ability of paying staff and for not providing information on invoices Satyam computers was banned by World Bank for eight years. All these things led the four independent directors to quit the board, further SEBI also asked the promoters to disclose its pledge shares. After a while DSP Merrill Lynch terminated the contract with company after discovering irregularities in company's account book.

As confessed by chairman Raju balance sheet on September 30, 2008 contains following figures:
  • Accrued interest 376 crore (non-existent)
  • 5040 crores of non-existent cash
  • 5361 bank balance
  • Liability worth 1230 crore was not disclosed.
  • Debtors were overstated by 490 crores.
  • Operating margins was stated at 649 crores as against actual 61 crore.
Satyam used to create fictitious sources of income like fake debtors and income accounts without any external auditor knowledge. The company paid their auditors PWC twice the money paid by the other company. The questions regarding conspiracy to fraud were raised as PWC was paid 37.3 million for financial year 2007-2008. PWC license was revoked as the audit fees was increased by 5.7 times, total income increased by 2.47 times and auditors were given monetary incentive for hiding fraud.

Creation of fake companies
Rama Linga Raju had created a web of 356 investment companies for the diversion of funds. Fake companies took 6000 acres of land and loan of 1230 crore from these companies which were not even accounted in the books. In investigation it was found that 7 non-existent companies were given several projects by Satyam Computers. One of these companies received unsecured load of 600 crore by making the investment of 90.25 crore.

Creation of fake fixed deposit
On 30th September 2008, the actual FD was 10 crores while in the accounts it was shown at a massive amount of 3300 crore to auditors. Purpose of creation of fake FD's was to create illusion of fake profit margin which ultimately led to pay cash balance.

Showing fake employees
One of the major factors contributing to misappropriation was showcasing increased number of employees. As claimed by Raju the number of employees on pay roll was 53000 but according to investigators the real number was 43000. Money paid to fake employees was around 4 million per month which was diverted to Raju's family for the purpose of purchasing thousands of acres of land.

Insider trading
According to investigation agencies the promoters were indulge into insider trading. SFIO reported that family members and promoters of Satyam sold shares of rupees 3029.67 crores. Raju also sold 98 lakhs share worth 773.42 crore and his brother sold 1.1 crore shares amounting to rupees 894.32 crore. All these persons were found guilty of manipulating prices in share prices as insider trading and also, they were asked by the SEBI to deposit unlawful gain of 1850 crore along with the interest of 12% interest. They were also prohibited to deal in security markets for next 14 years.

Conspiracy with non-executive directors
The non-executive directors were given share at a throw away price of 2 rupees per share. On top that they were earning unreasonably high commission as discovered by audit report. The reasons for extra benefit to directors was that they would show no resistance to the scandal

Fake invoices
The Excel porting system of Satyam created fake invoices to show inflated sales and thus high profit. The system generated 74625 invoices from April 2003 to December 2008 and sales were inflated by 18% every quarter.

Director's holding
The accounts of Satyam Company over the years showed that the directors have reduced their holding from 25.65 TO 8.74% FROM March 2001 to March 2008. Mr. Raju made a last attempt to survive by trying to acquire Mytas but when he couldn't do so, he gave up and confess his fraud. The reason he confessed was that, it is easy to show fudging revenue but it is difficult to show fake expenditure and over the years the gap between actual profit and book profit widened.

Mr. S Gopal Kriahna and Shree Niwas Talluri were charged with fraud and criminal conspiracy. After discovery of fraud Satyam shares fell from 544rupees to 11.5 rupees. In international stock market Satyam shares fell from 29.10 dollar to 1.8 dollar. Criminal charges of breach of trust, forgery, and criminal conspiracy were brought against Mr. Raju. Indian government also took part into investigation of Satyam case but at the same time limiting its interference in order to not look as conspirators.

New board members were appointed having target of selling company in 100 days. Board hired Goldmen Sachs and Avendus capital to make the sale of the company. At the time of sale of the company various IT Companies participated in the bid on 13th April 2009 and finally tech Mahindra took over the company at 1.13 dollar per share. Whole auction process took place under the supervision of Justice Bharucha.

The Fodder's Scam

(Dr. Jagannath Mishra, Lalu Prasad v. State of Bihar (1) BLJR 347, 1998)
The scam popularly known as charakhotala involves the embezzlement of rupees 9.5 billion from State treasury of Bihar for fodder medicines and husbandry supplies for non-existence livestock. In the scam two main political personalities were involved. One of them was CM of Bihar Lalu Prasad Yadav and the other was Former CM Jagannath Mishra. The scam in its initial stage is involved of some government employees but magnified over time to such an extent that it had also the involvement of people at ministry level.

In 1985 the CAG of India T.N Chaturvedi gave a notice to CM of Bihar Chandarshakher Singh because of delayed monthly account submission. The notice was served as a warning but the same was ignored. In 1992 a police officer Bidhu Bhushan Drivedi informed the director general of anti-corruption vigilance unit regarding the scam and the person involved. Bidhu was transformed from his post and later on suspended. He was reinstated by the order of Jharkhand High Court after he gave his testimony as witness.

Amit Khare the Deputy Commissioner of west Singhbhum Diatrict raided on 27th January, 1996 in the offices of animal husbandry in the town of chaibasa. Several documents were seized and it was found that the State involves the large-scale embezzlement for the discovery of irregularities, it was ordered by Laloo Prasad Yadav to constitute a committee. The demand was raised to transfer the case to CBI as there was fear that State Administration and police will not investigate the matter properly.

A PIL was filed and the case was ordered to be transferred to CBI by Bihar Court in 1996. Soon after CBI started investigated the scam and it was stated that documents were block by politicians – official business mafia involving some legislatures also. The legislatures against whom the acquisition was made brought a privilege motion to take possible actions against CBI officials.

Later CBI officials tendered their apology and the motion was dropped. CBI continues the investigation and on 10th may, 1997 a formal request was made to Governor for the permission to proceed against Lalu Prasad Yadav.
Harish Khandelwal one of the accused found dead on the same day on railway track and a note was found near his body in which it was stated that he was coerced by the CBI to turn witness for prosecution. CBI rejected the charge and kept the appeal in place. A.R Kidwai who was governor at that time stated that he would need strong evidence against Lalu Prasad before proceeding further.

On June 17, the permission was granted by the governor to prosecute Lalu and others involved in scam. Four IAS officers and one government official were taken to judicial custody. CBI prepared a charge sheet to be filled in special court and a raid on 21 June was conducted at Laloo Prasad residence because there was suspicion that the evidence against him might be tempered or destroyed. Charge sheet was filed on 23 June.

The approval for anticipatory bail was granted on the request made by Jagganath Mishra but Laloo's request was denied and he was taken to jail. It was clear that Laloo would be engulfed in the scam and he know that he would be removed from chiefministership as the voices against him were raised both within and outside the party. Finally, Laloo on 5 July parted with Janta Dal and formed his own party Radhtriya Janta Dal and install his wife Rabri Devi as new chief Minister.

Conclusion
In the end I would like to conclude that “where there is will there is a way”. If every citizen of the country keeps strong will towards resisting corruption there is no doubt that this evil can be eradicated from the roots. The most prominent reason for corruption is cited to be the ignorance of citizens towards the said act. Research states other major factor that contributes to such crime is the no knowledge of anti-corruption law. In India illiteracy is so widespread that people are not aware about their basic rights and necessary laws in place for their benefit.

Imposing harsh and deterrent punishment is a way which could lend us out of corruption. Our former President APJ Abdul Kalam sated that every child of the country should take oath on their parent to speak the truth and be honest. This possible way helps not only individuals but the entire nation to contribute towards eradication of termite known to be corruption.

References:
  • https://www.clatgyan.com/clat-general-knowledge/coalgate-scam/
  • https://cag.gov.in/sites/default/files/audit_report_files/Union_Performance_Civil_Allocation_2G_Spectrum_19_2010.pdf
  • https://cag.gov.in/content/report-no-6-2011-%E2%80%93-performance-audit-xixth-commonwealth-games
  • https://www.slideshare.net/NISHA104/common-wealth-games-scam
  • https://www.researchgate.net/publication/282331448_Corporate_Accounting_Fraud_A_Case_Study_of_Satyam_Computers_Limited
  • https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://cejsh.icm.edu.pl/cejsh/element/bwmeta1.element.desklight-589e1dfc-1a92-47b7-87d5-d5221881fe14/c/2_Bhasin.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjw-MiGw_LoAhUDfX0KHTb4DwAQFjACegQIAhAB&usg=AOvVaw10sbf8AXkFHCoaC1bjqDhm
  • https://www.researchgate.net/publication/316170814_Corporate_Scams
  • http://m.indiatoday.in/gallery/coal-scam-how-india-lost-rs-1.86-lakh-crores/1/7610.html
  • http://faculty.chicagobooth.edu.
  • https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/explained-what-is-the-coal-scam-all-about-in-which-madhu-koda-is-held-guilty-1106352-2017-12-13
  • https://www.slideshare.net/poojachakraborty17/coal-gate
  • https://vigeyegpms.in/cvc/?module=public&action=audit_report
  • https://yourstory.com/2017/12/8-scams-india
  • https://www.slideshare.net/NISHA104/common-wealth-games-scam
  • https://www.slideshare.net/poojachakraborty17/coal-gate
  • https://www.clatgyan.com/clat-general-knowledge/coalgate-scam/

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One may very easily get absorbed in the lives of others as one scrolls through a Facebook news ...

Section 482 CrPc - Quashing Of FIR: Guid...

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The Inherent power under Section 482 in The Code Of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (37th Chapter of t...

The Uniform Civil Code (UCC) in India: A...

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The Uniform Civil Code (UCC) is a concept that proposes the unification of personal laws across...

Role Of Artificial Intelligence In Legal...

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Artificial intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing various sectors of the economy, and the legal i...

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