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| FIR after FIR by CBI, largesse after largesse by DD | | Ex-SFC official’s family gets projects worth Rs 1 cr from Prasar Bharti | | Early Times Report
SRINAGAR, Nov 20: Different family members of a vigilance-tainted officer of Jammu & Kashmir State Forest Corporation (SFC), whose services were finally terminated by Ghulam Nabi Azad’s government on account of his serious indictment by Kundal Committee in 2007, have surfaced to be the beneficiaries of Doordarshan’s widely condemned commissioning for Kashir Channel. Even as Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has been registering FIR after FIR against members of this family for their alleged involvement in multi-Crore scandals---latest being in June 2009---Ambika Soni’s national broadcaster has crossed all limits of showering undue favours on them, this time around Rs 1 Crore projects in DD Kashir.
Doordarshan authorities at ‘Mandi House’ in New Delhi have been continuously refusing to put the list of the allottees and their credentials on DD’s website but the list of the beneficiaries published in local newspapers as a paid advertisement by a group of private producers has made it public that at least four of them belong to the former SFC official’s family. They are clearly identifiable by their surname. Insiders insist that inspite of CBI having registered three criminal matters against them, DD Kashir’s head and incharge Deputy Director General (DDG), Ananya Banerjee, had been openly calling one of them as “my son”. Ms Banerjee has reportedly played key role in the dubious commissioning process that has dangerously eroded Doordarshan’s credibility among the intelligentsia in Jammu & Kashmir.
Informed sources revealed to Early Times that DDG Ananya Banerjee has succeeded in manipulating the commissioning process for DD Kashir and has allotted 40-50 programmes of budget ranging between Rs 2 to 3 Lakh directly to two sons of the former SFC official, his brother and nephew. The largesse has been expanded even to his nephew’s father-in-law who has never in his life either made a programme for DD or entered its premises. DDK Srinagar official, Gulab-ud-din Tahir, who had been hand-picked by Banerjee and associated with the commissioning process at ‘Mandi House’ in New Delhi, is reported to have issued more than 200 fake certificates, claiming that these ‘private producers’ had made hundreds of programmes which had been telecast by DDK Srinagar and DD Kashir.
According to these sources, some of the allottees are either completely anonymous or have joined as actors or assistants in the last 2-3 years but all of them have been allotted programmes on the basis of fake and fraudulent telecast certificates issued by GD Tahir. According to DD’s standing guidelines, private producers were eligible for empanelment of 2007-08 only if they had experience of five years in the field of television production. One of the freshers, who has been allotted highest number of 13 programmes, was reportedly a regular employee of the state government until recently.
Enquiries revealed that the SFC official had been booked by J&K State Vigilance Organisation in serious matters of corruption and embezzlement of public money as many as three times in the last 20 years. In one of such cases, he had clandestinely managed surrender of the prosecution against him and joined back years after he had been sacked. Even after investing huge money in television production, he joined back but was, years later, placed under suspension on account of his alleged involvement in multi-Crore timber extraction allotment scandal in SFC. Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad’s government finally terminated his services after Kundal Committee established his criminal involvement in a number of matters.
As recently as in June 2009, CBI in Srinagar booked four members of the ex-SFC official’s family and registered against them an FIR under sections 13(1) D of Prevention of Corruption Act and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) as sleuths of the Central agency seized thousands of tapes from the room of DDK Srinagar’s morning show (‘Subhai Subhai’) producer Ghulam Hassan Dar. DDK Srinagar had allegedly acquired as many 9,500 segments clandestinely from this particular family and was in the process of releasing the payments when CBI conducted the raid on a specific information and launched a detailed investigation.
Reports, of late, suggest that this family, with the support of some DDK Srinagar officials, has even managed to earn (or buy) good wishes of some CBI officials in Srinagar who have, reportedly, assured them to issue “No Involvement Certificate” after the matter cools off under the passage of time. Allegations have begun to pour in that officials of the agency had themselves discovered a goldmine in DDK Srinagar and in-house programmes were being allotted to them secretly on different front names.
With a “rich profile” in scandalous matters, members of the same family had been booked by CBI during the DD Kashir commissioning process eight years ago. They were arrested and lodged in Delhi’s Tihar Jail alongwith then Director of Programmes P K Dass and his junior Mumtaz Beg. Thereafter, CBI and Central Vigilance registered another criminal matter against them during the tenure of Director of Programmes, DD Kashir, Anurag Misra. However, with the advantage of their money power and close connections with senior officials in DD and Prasar Bharti Broadcasting Corporation, the accused either managed to weaken the cases against them or succeeded in getting scot free.
Sources revealed that in addition to the “Subhai Subhai” acquisition scandal, members of the same family and their relatives and employees have been entertained as “facility providers” of more than 200 in-house programmes at DDK Srinagar in the last 16 months, claiming payment of over Rs 70 Lakhs.
Attempts to get DD authorities’ comments did not succeed as Director DDK Srinagar, himself an accused before CBI, had his mobile phone continuously switched off and his office maintained that he was not present. Offices of DD’s Director General, Aruna Sharma, and DDG of DD Kashir, Ananya Banerjee, did not respond to phone calls from Srinagar. |
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