Demanding a criminal investigation into the serious evidences of bribery and corruption in the Sahara-Birla Payoffs, former Delhi High Court Judge, (Justice) A P Shah has, in a strongly written letter to the Chairperson CBDT on behalf of Citizens Whistleblowers Forum (CWF) asked that the CBDT challenge the spurious order passed by the Settlement Commission granting immunity to Sahara.
Calling the seized documents “clear evidence of systematic bribery of politicians including several Chief Ministers and public servants by these business groups, ” the letter states that the CWF is in possession of the Apprisal report that document these bribes. The letter by Justice AP Shah may be read here.
The letter also states that the CWF has learnt that the CBI (in case of Birla) and the Income Tax Department (in case of Sahara) had recovered and seized documents, notes, laptops and huge amounts of cash.
On January 5, Sabrangindia had reported how completely ignored the Income Tax Department’s Appraisal report commenting on the systematic bribes given to politicians. The same day, following Supreme Court proceedings in the matter, newspapers had reported how, in after the surprise and hastily passed order by the IT Settlement Commission (ITSC) the Sahara group got sudden immunity when the tax panel, the ITSC that had earlier rejected the application of the company suddenly on September 5, 2016 re-admitted it and accepted the companies claim that the seized papers are not real evidence!
The ITSC order and other incriminating documents are part of the ongoing legal effort in the Supreme Court. The evidence so easily dismissed by the ITSC (that it discusses at length in the order) includes the loose sheets and computer print-outs which form the ‘Sahara diaries’ that have alleged payoffs to over 100 politicians from more than 14 parties. This had created a political storm in mid-November when the allegations became public though much of the electronic media chose to ignore them.
The IT department’s Appraisal Report had “disbelieved the bogus explanations given by Sahara and Birla officers ad had held that the seized documents were correct and non-fictititious” that depicted the real state of affairs, says Shah’s letter.
Justice Shah’s letter reiterates that in the Sahara case, some of the relevant seized documents are the printouts of three Excel sheets showing cash receipt of over Rs 115 crore and cash outflow of over Rs 113 crores during a short period of 10 months. While the first sheer goes up to
While the first sheet goes up to March 4, .2014, the others relate to February 22, 2014 and even November 12, 2013, respectively. The entries in all the three sheets tally with each other. The logs suggest that cash was apparently transferred to several important public figures. The excel sheets show the date of payment, to whom money was paid, the amount paid, through whom it was paid and the place of payment. Therefore, it has been argued, that they contain enough information to initiate a thorough investigation.
In the Birla case, the IT Department interrogated in detail senior officers of the Birla group including DGM(Accounts) Anand Saxena. Through this interrogation and as recorded by the IT department’s appraisal report, Saxena reportedlu maintained records of unaccounted transactions for the last about 5 years continuously and used to receive unaccounted cash through certain angadias on a regular basis for that purpose: he was in touch with persons like GK Tulsian, RK Kasliwal and AN Agarwal to receive such cash (employees of different companies of the Aditya Birla Group. The entries on the alleged bribes given relate to specific project clearances of the group including the 750 MW powerplant supposed to draw coal from the Mahan Coal Block. The letter also notes that during the tenure of the ‘then Minister, Environment& Forest, as many as 13 projects of the Aditya Birla Group companies were cleared between November 8, 2011 and June 17, 2013.
One of the most controversial entries was payment to ‘Gujarat CM’ interpreted widely as a total payment of not less than Rs 55 crores to then chief minister, Gujarat,Narendra Modi.
Justice Shah is the Chairperson of CWF. Other founder members of CWF are Justice Santosh Hegde (former SC judge), Admiral Ramdas (former Chief of Naval Staff), Mr. Wajahat Habibullah (first CIC), Dr. EAS Sarma (former GoI secretary), Aruna Roy (social activist), Jagdeep Chhokar (Association for Democratic Reforms and former Prof IIM Ahmedabad), and Prashant Bhushan (advocate, SC).