Corruption Watch

11-17-2006, 09:45 AM

lets hope our govt. is listening to the president <!--emo& Smile

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11-23-2006, 07:12 AM

<img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/devilsmiley.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='devilsmiley.gif' /> ATM for cops is 'Any Time Malpractice'
[ 23 Nov, 2006 0139hrs ISTTIMES NEWS NETWORK ]
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MUMBAI: Mumbai police have gone hi-tech. They now take 'Any Time Bribes'in keeping with technological advances. Two officers from NM Joshi Marg police station recently took a suspect from the lock-up to a UTI ATM in Mahim and forced him to withdraw Rs 25,000 and hand it over to them. They were finally caught accepting second instalment of the bribe on Wednesday.

Share market franchisee Ravi Kumar Guthi's crime was that he introduced a former employer and garment exporter Dhanraj Rajpal to a supplier Shivananth Vadival from Tamil Nadu. A deal was struck and Rajpal paid an advance of Rs 1.20 lakh for a consignment but when the garments were ready, he rejected them for their inferior quality and demanded his money back.

Rajpal lodged a complaint of cheating against Vadival and Guthi with NM Joshi Marg police. A team was sent to Tamil Nadu as the suspects were in Tirupur in Tamil Nadu.

"They had not got any arrest warrant so Vadival slipped out of their hands. But they got me here by saying they will remove my name from the case," Guthi told TOI.

On November 3, Guthi was arrested and booked for cheating, fraud and breach of trust and misappropriation of Rs 1.20 lakh. Investigating officer Prashant Pandit then promised to get him bail if he paid Rs 50,000. From N M Joshi Marg (formerly Delisle Road) in Lower Parel, Pandit's colleague officer-on-probation Jagdish Giri took him in a taxi all the way to Mahim to an ATM to withdraw the money. "I pointed many ATMs on way, but they wanted an ATM without a CCTV. And they knew Mahim had one," said Guthi.

Two days later, Guthi was shocked to find the police seeking custody despite taking a bribe of Rs 25,000. "It was because I had not paid the remaining Rs 25,000," Guthi said. The court granted police custody till November 10 after which he was released on bail but asked to report to the police station everyday.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/NEWS/In...002,curpg-2.cms

01-23-2007, 12:50 AM

QUOTELalu regime officers bought geysers, coolers with EC funds 
pioneer.com
Shuja-ul-Haq | New Delhi
The saga of loot and misuse of public money by the babus in Bihar doesn't end at the panchayat elections. Its shadow also fell on the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha bypolls during the Lalu regime in 1997-98.

The audit report for 1998, presented before the Delhi High Court through a petition details how the State election machinery defrauded the exchequer of a whopping Rs 34 crore during these elections. The CAG report takes into account the records of ten districts, including Patna, Muzzafarpur, Vaishali, Gaya and Samastipur.

Though the Election Commission of India is responsible for holding these elections, their orders are executed through the officers of the State Government.

A scrutiny of the poll records reveals that six District Magistrates in their capacity as District Election Officers misused the election funds of Rs 15.63 lakh during 1996-98 just on the purchase of colour televisions, room coolers, geysers, fax machines, furniture, generating sets, carpets, fans and other household items.

Now if you are guessing where is the use of these items in elections, you are right. All these articles have allegedly found their way to the circuit houses or the District Magistrate's residential office in Samastipur and for the room of Personal Assistant to Samastipur DM.

While explaining this illegal use of funds, the report goes on to say that all these purchases were made without inviting tenders and no entries made in the stock ledgers. Interestingly, the report states that the District Election Officer Samastipur purchased such household articles for an amount of Rs 98,000 even after the 1998 Lok Sabha polls were over.

The misuse of election funds for such purposes doesn't stop at Samastipur. The audit report details that in six districts, the District Election Officers diverted available funds of Rs 1.63 crore to other purposes.

Now even if the funds found their way to the election use, the DEOs have been so slow and careless to maintain the record of the expenditure that they could never recover the money that was not used. According to the report, due to ill maintenance of records, the DEOs of 10 districts were unable to recover a sum of Rs 5.75 crore paid as advance to various agencies or officials. The report points out that the DEOs 'took no initiative' to get the amounts recovered or adjusted.

The Photo Identity Cards to be issued to the voters also finds its way in the list of defrauded items. The Central Government had released an advance of Rs 22.76 crore for the purpose of manufacturing the cards. The report charges that even though eight manufacturing firms responded to the tenders invited to make PICs, the Chief Electoral Officer awarded the work on nomination basis to one particular firm.

The favouritism shown by the election officers towards the firm is proved by the fact that even though the agency failed at many grounds, it was never penalised. According to the report, the agency failed to complete the work on time thus was liable to pay a penalty of Rs 60,000. As part of the penalty, a performance guarantee of Rs 1.61 crore that should have been forfeited but this was never done. The agency was also liable to replace the defective identity cards free of cost. However, 8.61 lakh defective cards valued at Rs 1.14 crore were not replaced by the agency. The Government didn't even bother to lodge any claim on the agency for this.

At the request of the agency, 90 per cent (Rs 3.15 crore) of the value of equipment of the agency was mortgaged in January 1996 by the Government as security for providing it a working capital of Rs 1.12 crore. Shockingly, the amount was paid even though there were no whereabouts of the physical presence of the equipment mortgaged.

The other discrepancies include the non-utilisation of electoral rolls printed in excess of requirement which resulted in a loss of Rs 22.57 lakh. Further, according to the audit report, the Chief Election Officer wasted 2.64 lakh handbooks because of apparent miscalculation of the actual requirement. This resulted in an extra cost of Rs 32.70 lakh as the election expenditure. The other headlines that glitter on the audit report are the excess expenditure on the carriage of ballot boxes to the tune of Rs 28.23 lakh. Purchases made at higher rate, non- recovery of money to be forfeited and to top it all payments made on fake videography resulted in extra burden of around Rs 30 lakh on the State exchequer.

Irregularities galore

Rs 15.63 lakh of election funds misused on the purchase of colour televisions, room coolers and other household items for District Magistrates' homes

District Election Officers diverted available funds of Rs 1.63 crore to other purposes

Unused Rs 5.75 crore paid as advance to various agencies or officials never recovered

An agency, which should have been penalised for Rs 1.14 crore for its failure to supply photo identity cards, was allowed to go scot-free


Laloo's fan club must be happy to see his achievement.

02-04-2007, 09:18 AM

Rural job scheme: A statistical goof up

03-11-2007, 09:57 PM

QUOTEI-T raid on biz man, Rs 35,000 cr seized

http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=82588
Press Trust of India
Posted online: Thursday, March 08, 2007 at 1517 hours IST
Updated: Thursday, March 08, 2007 at 1520 hours IST

New Delhi, March 8: The Income Tax department conducted raids on the residence of a Pune based businessman, Hasan Ali and claim to have traced unaccounted wealth worth Rs 35,000 crore, according to reports.
Ali is suspected to be involved in the Hawala circuit.

The tax men found details of his accounts on Aliâs computers at his Koregaon residence in Pune. Raids were also held across Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bangalore where he has properties.

The department is said to have informed the Central Board of Direct Taxes and the Finance Ministry. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has been brought into the case

03-11-2007, 09:59 PM

QUOTEMumbai: The unearthing of an illegal money transfer racket worth Rs.350 billion (nearly $7 billion), involving Pune-based businessman-cum-horse breeder Hassan Ali, may just be the "tip of the iceberg", enforcement directorate (ED) sleuths said.

"Initial investigations reveal that the money stashed in Ali's Swiss bank and other illegal accounts may run into several thousand billion, and this could just be the tip of the iceberg," said an ED official here Thursday.

"We are yet to assess the actual worth of his unaccounted wealth, as the transaction details found on his computers is yet to be estimated. A team of ED official is presently in Switzerland probing the matter. This could well be the largest unearthing of hidden wealth in the country," said an official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The official claimed that even according to "conservative" estimates, Ali could feature among the top Indian billionaires. 

"The unaccounted wealth unearthed by income tax officials does not include Ali's "accounted" assets.

With his unaccounted assets worth Rs. 350 billion (which has been unearthed) and yet to be estimated, Ali could possibly be in the league of Indian billionaires who feature in the Forbes list," the official mused.

"We believe that Ali is a major player in the international hawala or illegal money transfer racket. It seems that a large chunk of his unaccounted wealth has come from the hawala circuit."

Tax sleuths stumbled on the unaccounted wealth in alleged "hawala accounts" or illegal money transfer racket during raids at Ali's up-market residence in Koregoan area of Pune and found the detail on his computers.

The department then informed the Central Board of Direct Taxes and the finance ministry and the enforcement directorate, which have subsequently frozen seven of the 10 accounts operated illegally by Ali in Swiss banks, sources here said.

"The IT department sleuths along with the ED officials have been conducting coordinated raids across Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bangalore where Ali owns properties."

"Subsequently, ED official went to Switzerland and froze seven of the 10 bank accounts allegedly operated by Ali." 

Ali who hails from Hyderabad, is a prominent businessman based in Pune, where he runs a thriving horse breeding stud farm. He also owns properties worth thousands of billion in Pune, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bangalore, sources said.

"Apart, from being a prominent businessman and a well know name on Pune and Mumbai derby-circuits, Ali also owns a stud farm dealing with pure-breed horses."

"The matter is still under investigation with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) have been roped in."

04-20-2007, 01:01 AM

YSR Devil''s Advocate, Interview

QUOTEReddy also clarified that the reason why he and his family possessed 310 acres of ''assigned'' land for almost 30 years without surrendering them was because they were ignorant of the facts.
 How convenient!

04-22-2007, 11:16 AM

The arrest last week of a BJP Member of the Lok Sabha while he was in the process of taking out of India a women and a 14 year boy to Canada on forged documents is a very disturbing development. The subsequent investigations indicate that the MP was engaged in human trafficking and it is further alleged that several other MPs are also engaged in such activities.
This is perhaps the glimpse of the corruption that has entered our political system. There have been several media reports in the past about criminal elements entering the State legislature and Parliament after getting elected on national party tickets. It was expected that the BJP being a Cadre based organization with a strong ideology would do better but now it appears that it is as good a political party as the rest in the Indian political arena.

04-23-2007, 12:25 AM

QUOTE(Ravish @ Apr 22 2007, 01:46 AM)The arrest last week of a BJP Member of the Lok Sabha while he was in the process of taking out of India a women and a 14 year boy to Canada on forged documents is a very disturbing development. The subsequent investigations indicate that the MP was engaged in human trafficking and it is further alleged that several other MPs are also engaged in such activities.
This is perhaps the glimpse of the corruption that has entered our political system. There have been several media reports in the past about criminal elements entering the State legislature and Parliament after getting elected on national party tickets. It was expected that the BJP being a Cadre based organization with a strong ideology would do better but now it appears that it is as good a political party as the rest in the Indian political arena.
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What difference does a cadre based party make? Corruption depends on the level of checks and balances. Say in an exam, if the students who cheat are not pulled up, what incentive is there for any student to study and prepare for exams? If our errant officials and representatives are not pulled for unlawful practices, no party can prevent such criminal elements from infiltrating them. If this is the level in BJP, the cleanest party, you can imagine how things will be in congress and others. Also, I think, this trafficking can be blamed on MODI! <!--emo& Tongue

--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tongue.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tongue.gif' /> If only MODI had given oppurtunity for his state MP to make some easy cash as some Board chairman, the MP would not have had to resort to this!

04-26-2007, 11:12 PM

Srini: Few understand that in politics one has to choose between theif and robber. When educated elites choose to ignore this basic fact, it could be because of only one reason.

Given the fact, BJP has expelled this criminal, one wonders why there's been no outrage against all those Bofors and Volkors theives who are still walk freely in the corridors of power. Railway minister is a world phamous for corruption and even finance minister has been tainted by the Vendatam issue. All rule and live freely thanks to blessings of PM and super PM - andtheir own record on public accountablity is pretty questionable. Add up looting that's gone in past 50+ years of their rule and compare with any other party - it's not apples versus orange, it's comparing acres of rotten-apple orchard to one saffronish orange.

04-26-2007, 11:19 PM

Fighters for a corruption-free India

5th Pillar
Parivartan.com

05-02-2007, 12:39 AM

QUOTEMPs, bureaucrats under scanner for rent default 
Pioneer News Service | New Delhi
More than 400 people, including MPs, bureaucrats, artists and journalists occupying Government bungalows across the country are in default of payment of rent amounting to several crores of rupees.

The Centre has revealed this staggering figure before the Supreme Court in response to a query made by Court about the total number of illegal occupants in Government bungalows.

An affidavit filed on Tuesday by the Director of Estates has revealed a list of 400 such occupants staying illegally in Government bungalows who have failed to pay license fee upto March 31, 2007.

Prominent among the defaulters include three General Secretaries of the Indian National Congress who have to pay over Rs 1 crore as rent for holding unauthorised occupation of bungalows situated at No 5, Raisina Road, No CII/109 Chanakya Puri and 26, Akbar Road respectively.

Even the State Congress unit ranks high in the list of defaulters with a pending amount of over Rs 50 crore. The State unit of BJP situated at 14, Pandit Pant Marg also has a due amount of about Rs 19 lakh. Senior leaders of the BJP along with former Bihar Governor Buta Singh and the family of former Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao and late Congress MP Sunil Dutt also find mention in the list.

Presenting these details before a Bench of Justices BN Agrawal, PP Naolekar and RV Raveendran, Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Amrendra Saran stated that recovery proceeding against the 400 persons is in process. While no amount has yet been recovered, the Government told the Court that demand notices have been issued and response is awaited from the occupants of the properties in question.

Besides the names given in the list, the Centre submitted two separate lists with its affidavit detailing the cases where the illegal occupants have resorted to legal action and proceedings are pending decision in various courts across the country. The number of such cases amounts to 45. The Government has written to the standing counsels representing the Centre in the respective courts to move appropriate applications for disposing the matter within four months from the date of application, as per the apex court's direction on the earlier hearing of the case on January 17.

05-02-2007, 12:59 AM

Well, well, almost missed this human trafficking case didn't we?
Telengana party in trafficking turmoil

QUOTEAndhra Pradesh police have launched a search for Telengana Rashtra Samiti MLA Kasipeta Lingaiah for alleged involvement in a human trafficking case.

Late tonight, the party suspended A. Narendra, the No. 2 in the TRS hierarchy and former Union minister, for alleged links to the racket.

A CID team is probing charges that Lingaiah, an MLA from Nerella in Karimnagar, obtained a passport in January for another woman in his wife Taraâs name. A fake ration card was allegedly furnished with the passport application for the purpose of identification.

The 55-year-old lawmaker has been absconding for the past two days from his Karimnagar and Hyderabad homes. A CID official said his mobile phone is switched off.

Police sources said Lingaiah had given a letter from chief minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy to the chief of the US embassyâs consular section to ensure that the visa for his âwifeâ was issued quickly.

05-05-2007, 09:04 PM

Meghalaya Cong chief in chit fund fraud caseQUOTEInvestors in a cooperative society chit fund have lodged a complaint against Meghalaya Congress president OL Nongtdu and two others for "cheating" them of their "hard-earned money".Â

On Friday, a group of irate investors filed an FIR against Literature Centre Cooperative Society Limited (LCCSL) at the Laban police station for duping them of over Rs 5 lakh. They named Nongtdu as the Societyâs chairman and HM Haque and Altaf Haque as its secretary and collector respectively.
................

05-22-2007, 12:15 AM

Ex-MP, MLA among 12 arrested in recruitment scam
QUOTEThe Anti- Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Sunday arrested former a local Congress MP and an MLA along with 10 others for their alleged involvement in the irregularities in the recruitment to Aurangabad District Central Co-operative Bank (ADCCB) and Zilla Dekhrekh Sahkari Sanstha (ZDSS).

05-22-2007, 07:02 AM

Pen drive, phone memory card help put Amarinder in dock
Prabhjot Singh
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 21
Did a pen drive and a phone memory card reportedly help the Punjab vigilance bureau nail former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, his son Raninder Singh, mother Mohinder Kaur, sister Herminder Kumari (Bibaji) and brother-in-law Natwar Singh in the Ludhiana city centre and Punjab intranet scams?

Helped by the pen drive, the bureau has claimed seizing computerised account books of Chetan Gupta, suspected to be the main conduit for putting black or ill-gotten money of 80 businessmen and top politicians in hawala transactions, investments in real estate and money laundering.

The seized computerised book of accounts of Chetan Gupta relates to the past eight years. All transactions made until March 31, 2007, are recorded in a separate account of each of the 80 beneficiaries, including several members of the family of Amarinder Singh and former foreign minister Natwar Singh.

âPlease let us complete the investigations first,â was all director of the vigilance bureau S.S. Saini has to say on the progress in the case so far.

Vigilance bureau sleuths were careful to ensure that Chetan Gupta or his men should not be able to destroy either the pen drive or the memory card of his phone in which he had stored information of his Swiss account as well as some details, including the address of a flat owned by Bibaji in London.

Sources reveal that Chetan Gupta was handling more than Rs 52 crore on behalf of his 80 clients. He has an account in a Swiss bank (No 0835-722966-7 in Credit Suisse, 500 Parade Plats, Zurich).

Apart from the compilation of information about alleged bribes paid in the Ludhiana city centre scam and datewise remittances in hawala transactions, an international money laundering racket, claim the sources, has been exposed.

The account books also reveal varying interest rates paid to different beneficiaries. Chetan Guptaâs entries reveal that he used to pay 24 per cent interest to Natwar Singh while in the case of Rajmata Mohinder Kaur, Jaya and Malwinder Singh it was 15 per cent each. Interestingly, for Amarinder Singh and Raninder Singh, it was 12 per cent.

One entry in the computerised account books says that interest amounts of Rs 6 lakh, Rs 8 lakh and Rs 4 lakh were paid to Jagat Singh, Natwar Singh and Bibaji in March this year.

The bureau men had spent the entire day yesterday in New Delhiâs Barakhamba Road office of Chetan Gupta in perusing the computerised account books.

Incidentally, the state vigilance bureau has become the first agency to seize computerised account books. It has been working quietly and got details of even bribes allegedly paid by Chetan Gupta not only to secure the franchise of various international airlines but also to senior functionaries in the enforcement directorate in the Punjab intranet scam.

The bureau has now established dates, places and the amount of bribes which were paid in the Ludhiana city centre scam. For example, money changed hands in Greater Kailash (S Block) and the Lodhi Estate area in New Delhi. Preliminary investigations have correlated these dates with the visit of the former Chief Minister to New Delhi.

Chetan Gupta was maintaining computerised accounts of, among others, Bibaji, Natwar Singh, Jagat Singh, Amarinder Singh, Tikku (Amarinder Singhâs second account) and Maharaja Amarinder Singh besides two separate accounts of Raninder Singh in the name of Tiku and Tiku (P). His interrogation revealed details of a flat owned by Bibaji in London ( 37 Shrewsbury, 42 Cheynewalk) and also how he first got the money transferred in his Swiss account before putting it back in Natwar Singhâs account abroad.

As on March 31, 2007, Bibaji had Rs 2,09,72,195 in her account with Chetan Gupta while Natwar Singh had Rs 4,10,53,603 and Jagat Singh Rs 3,32,09,544. The closing balance of Amarinder Singh (Tikku) on March 31 this year was Rs 12,19,04,015.

Besides, Chetan Guptaâs computerised account books revealed that Rs 21,97,14,568, was the inflow in 2005-2006.

Interestingly, the Rajmata owed Rs 86.44 lakh to Chetan Gupta but had given under a separate head a Rs 13 lakh deposit.

In the intranet scam, the investigations of Chetan Gupta revealed, money was routed through Jatin Kothari and Kim Sinha. Only two transactions of $ 1 lakh each could be confirmed so far. Interestingly, Kim Sinha had business transactions with Chetan Gupta also.

05-26-2007, 10:12 AM

33% Indians bribed legal systemQUOTEThirty-six per cent of Indians paid bribes to the legal system in 2006.
A household on an average spent Rs 3,817 in this regard, according to an international watchdog for corruption.

The Global Corruption Barometer 2006 report, prepared by Transparency International, also claimed this was a bigger amount than bribes paid in any other sector of the country.

Transparency International quoted a 2005 study by the Centre for Media Studies, which estimated the amount paid by Indians as bribes to the legal system at about Rs 2,630 crore (Rs 26.30 billion).

The CMS study said a majority of the bribes went to lawyers (61 per cent) followed by court officials (29 per cent) and middlemen (five per cent).

Transparency International, however, did not provide details of the number of people it surveyed.

The report said legal delays and complex legal procedures are making Indians take recourse to corrupt measures to get justice.

05-27-2007, 03:26 AM

Bhandari convicted in disproportionate assets case
26 May, 2007 l 2203 hrs ISTlPTI
GANGTOK: Former Sikkim Chief Minister Nar Bahadur Bhandari was on Saturday convicted in a disproportionate assets case by a designated CBI court here.

The court of Special CBI Judge S W Lepcha held Bhandari guilty under the prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.

The quantum of punishment will be pronounced by the court on Monday.

The case relates to the alleged construction of a five-storey building by Bhandari in Gangtok at a cost of Rs 15.22 lakh (Lalu must be laughing in his undies!) which is unaccounted for. The case was being heard by the designated CBI court since September 1994.

Bhandari was the chief minister of Sikkim from 1979 to 1994. He is presently the president of the Sikkim Pradesh Congress Committee.

05-29-2007, 01:12 AM

Japanese Minister Hangs Himself- Politician Faced Questions in Bookkeeping Scandal

I hope this may inspire Indian Politicians. After inspiration we may see empty Indian Parliament and State assembly.
For a good cause, it is acceptable <!--emo& Big Grin

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05-29-2007, 05:41 PM

Bail goof-up
Mumbai, May 28: A Pune-based builder, arrested by officials of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence on the charge of evading customs duty, was released on bail without the knowledge of the tax sleuths.

Avinash Bhosale, known as a flamboyant businessman who lends his helicopter to politicians, was detained yesterday after he arrived at the Mumbai airport by a flight from London.

He was arrested after he was found carrying dutiable goods worth Rs 47 lakh, including five diamond-studded watches and jewellery.

Although Bhosale offered to pay the customs duty after he was caught, the DRI officials sent him to Azad Maidan police station lock-up. He was to be produced at a court located on the same premises this morning.

But today, the officials discovered that the night magistrate had granted bail to Bhosale without informing them.

According to Bhosaleâs lawyer Harshad Ponda, a notice was sent to a DRI official, Harshad Mehta, at 9.30 last night, informing the directorate that his client was moving court for bail.

The night magistrate released Bhosale on a bail of Rs 50,000 and directed him to pay the requisite duty of Rs 15 lakh for the goods.

However, the DRI officials said no officer by the name of Harshad Mehta was on duty yesterday.

It is unclear if the DRI will move court demanding cancellation of the bail. Officials refused to speak on the issue.

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