Today, I do not find any news or media reports on which I can write my blog, so I am going few decades back and writing about scams which happened during earlier days of Indira Gandhi’s Congress Rule.
Nagarwala Scam
This was a scam of Rs 60 Lacs only, which was executed by Rustam Sohrab Nagarwala. Friends Rs 60 Lacs was a big amount in early 70s, in today’s time this is peanut.
On 21st May 1971, Malhotra, the Head Cashier of Delhi’s Main Branch of State Bank of India received a phone call. To Malhotra it looked like the voice of PM Indira Gandhi andand he was told that Govt needs Rs 60Lacs immediately for some secret operations in Bangala Desh, as at that time tension between Pakistan and then East Pakistan (Bangala Desh) was on going, he was further informed that PMO will issue the receipt for the said amount in due course, and was instructed that one Mr Nagarwala will contact him and will tell you how to hand over the money. The Head Cashier believed that he was talking to Indira Gandhi, and felt honoured . The money was delivered to Nagarwala by taxi in an appointed place, communicated earlier.
Later Malhotra went to PM office to collect the receipt for the said amount, and he found out there was no such request made by PM herself. Immediately FIR was lodged and Malhotra explained to Police how the fraud was executed. With the description provided by Malhotra, Nagarwala was found & arrested and most of the money was recovered, he confessed to his crime and revealed that he was talking to Malhotra in the voice of Indira Gandhi. In a very fast trial, Nagarwala was sentenced to 4 years in Jail and he died due to Heart attack while serving his imprisonment.
After Janata Party came to power in 1977, they appointed a commission headed by P Jagan Mohan Reddy to find the real truth in this matter. In 1978 the commission submitted a report on the matter. The crux of the report was that the confession by Nagarwala should have been rejected as it was not sub stantitiated by any concrete evidence , and the speed at which sentence was announced gives the doubt that was more to be told than actually revealed. In a series of letters written while he was serving jail term, Nagarwala implied that he knew Indira Gandhi very well, but she was unable to recall meeting him any time. Nagarwala often heard saying in jail, that he wanted to reveal the truth behind this crime and that it will be a great eye opener for every one.
This was one scam, which soon after gave birth to more scam during next few decades.
Anyulay Scam
AR Antulay, a Nehru- Gandhi family loyalist, became Chief Minister of Maharashtra in 1980, as per the orders of CongressHigh Command ie Indira Gandhi. While he was CM, he floated a trust called Indira Gandhi Pratishthan, he and his family members were main Trustees.
During late 70s & early 80s, in Maharashtra cement was a scarce commodity, its distribution & allotment was controlled by Govt. Builders and Project Developers who required cement for their projects had to apply to Govt for release of the cement as per their requirement. It only meant that cement was available in open market in black market rates, as it was totally Govt controlled. According to the system builders were to be given cement as per their project requirement. But Antulay abused his position as the CM. He used his influence as the CM and asked builders to donate handsomely to his trust (Pratishthan). In return, he bent the rules and violated guidelines to favour some builders with more cement quota than they were eligible for.
The scam was first reported in Indian Express by their Executive Editor Arun Shorie, who also ran in the newspaper, a series of exposes on how then CM Antulay misused his authority and collected more than Rs 30 Crore in the Prathisthan(Trust). Sequel to these exposes, a petition was filed in the Bombay High Court against Antulay, and Justice Lentin found Antulay guilty of abuse of authority and corruption. Under public pressure Antulay resigned as CM, and appealed against his conviction. Mean while Governor of Maharashtra gave permission for the prosecution of Antulay under the Prevention of Corruption Act. He not only lost his job of CM, but was also thrown into political wilderness for almost next 15 years. Later some how , he got clean chit from Supreme Court on some technicality, but by that time he was out of people’s mind.
The Indian Express, which exposed the scandal, became a big hit with the public and its circulation really went zooming up.
Even today in Mumbai, people today talk about the projects executed during early 80s as Antulay’s cement projects.
In the later part of 80s, there was one more big scam of Rs 60 odd crores, which became famous as Bofors Scam. I n my future blogs I may consider writing about the same.
So how do you find my today’s blog.
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R. N. Mungale.
New generation doesn’t know about Nagarwala scam. Also very few may remember Antulay/Indira Gandhi Pratishthan. It is good thing that Mr. Malik has written this blog.