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| Was CBI gagged to cover Jain hawala scam? | | Retired official spills the beans on J&K projects | |
B L KAK
NEW DELHI, NOV 30
Huge pay-offs were made through the infamous Jain hawala scam channel to clinch contracts for foreign companies for the two hydropower projects in Uri in Kashmir and Dul Hasti in Jammu region. This sensational revelation has been made by BR Lal, a former Joint Director of the CBI. The Jain hawala scam surfaced in 1991.
Lal has claimed that the CBI was gagged to cover the Jain hawalal scam after then Prime Minister, PV Narasimha Rao and close aides of Rajiv Gandhi were implicated. BR Lal has, in his soon-to-be released book titled 'Who owns CBI: The Naked Truth', accused over 100 Indian politicians as well as senior government officials of involvement in money laundering.
BR Lal, who investigated the Jain hawal scam of channelling money to Kashmiri militants, has described how people close to former Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, particularly absconding Italiam businesman, Ottavio Quattrochi, took bribes from foreign companies for getting them government contracts. Quattrochi was allegedly involved in the Bofors gun scandal as well as in the Jain hawala scam and in geting contracts for the two power projects in Jammu and Kashmir.
Former Joint Director of the CBI has also revealed how the much-discussed Jain hawala case was manipulated to save several top Congress politicians and some people who are still close to the ruling party's senior leaders. The scandal made senior BJP leader LK Advani resign from the Lok Sabha and senior Congress Ministers, including the late Madhavrao Scindia and Vidya Charan Shukla quit the government headed by Narasimha Rao.
BR Lal's sensational finding: Heavy underhand pay-offs were made in the award of contracts for the Uri hydel and Dulhasti power projects in Jammu and Kashmir with the Jain brothers siphoning off Rs 360 million and Rs 240 million respectively from the two projects. Nor is it all. BR Lal, while quoting a statement of Surendra Kumar Jain, the hawala operator who was also involved in channelling money to Kashmiri militants, says that Quattrochi and Jain had helped the French company Ceglec get the contract for Dulhasti in 1987, while the Uri hydel project was provided to the Swedish company, Scanska.
Jain, according to Lal, had told the CBI during interrogations that Quattrochi worked as a middleman for getting the Uri contract to Scanska. Jain said in his confession statement: "After the work of Uri project was allotted to Scanska, my share of the commission was settled at about 18 to 19 million dollars and Quattrochi transferred the money to the account of Ameer Bhai in Bombay to be delivered to me in Indian currency". Lal also quoted Jain as saying that he had started giving money to several politicians and senior public servants from 1987 and continued till 1991, when the racket was smashed.
BR Lal has accused the then CBI Director, K Vijaya Rama Rao, of thwarting the investigation. Lal writes: "The CBI did not look into the allegations against the highest authority, despite patent reasons prima facie. When the name of the then PM (PV Narasimha Rao) occurred in Jain's statement, all out efforts were mounted by none other than the CBI Director himself to ensure that this part of the statement was not brought on record at all."
Lal claims that the then CBI chief, Joginder Singh's actions were also dictated by political equations in the fodder scam case that involved Bihar strongman, Lalu Prasad Yadav. BR Lal has written: "Though the accused and the evidence remained the same, his party (Congress) went out of power at the Centre in April 1997, the same director did not bat an eyelid in charge-sheeting the same person as he had ceased to be a person in authority". |
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