Pope rules Vatican bank to stay operative, approves reforms Tripura voters 41% votes cast in Tripura till mid-day Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher joke about real-life relationship in Two and a Half Men The holy city of Varanasi (Picture for representational purposes only) Foreign tourists line up to witness festival of democracy angry-parents-school-molestation-pune 4 year old molested by her kindergarten bus driver in Pune Polling in Assam (Picture for representational purposes only) Over 49% vote for Assams five seats arun-jaitley Arun Jaitley files his nomination papers Narendra Modi attacks Gandhi family Pope rules Vatican bank to stay operative, approves reforms Tripura voters 41% votes cast in Tripura till mid-day Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher joke about real-life relationship in Two and a Half Men The holy city of Varanasi (Picture for representational purposes only) Foreign tourists line up to witness festival of democracy angry-parents-school-molestation-pune 4 year old molested by her kindergarten bus driver in Pune Polling in Assam (Picture for representational purposes only) Over 49% vote for Assams five seats arun-jaitley Arun Jaitley files his nomination papers Narendra Modi attacks Gandhi family PrevNext Home » India 20 political scams that shamed India Thursday, 29 August 2013 - 5:51pm IST Updated: Friday, 30 August 2013 - 10:18am IST | Place: Mumbai | Agency: DNA Web Team India has been rocked by a spate of scams in the recent past. Here is an overview of some of the most infamous scams that have hit the country over the years. Tell us which of these scams has caused the most damage to the country? 2013 Chopper scam: Better known as Choppergate, the scam involves several politicians and defence officers, who have been accused of having accepted bribes from AugustaWestland to clear a contract to supply 12 AgustaWestland AW101 helicopters to India. India had signed a contract to purchase 12 AgustaWestland AW101 helicopters in February 2010. The Rs3600 crore-scam came to light on February 12, 2013, when Finmeccanica CEO Giuseppe Orsi was arrested by Italian authorities for bribes allegedly paid to secure the sale of 12 helicopters to India. Finmeccanica is the parent company of AgustaWestland. Indian Defence Minister AK Antony ordered a CBI probe into the contract the very next day. Investigations revealed that three persons related to the then Air Force chief Shashi Tyagi had bended the rules in the tender to help AgustaWestland secure the contract. On March 13, 2013, the CBI had filed an FIR against the former IAF chief and 12 others for alleged cheating and criminal conspiracy in the Rs3600 crore VVIP helicopter deal. Tyagi is first chief of the Indian Air Force to be named in a corruption or criminal case by the CBI. The FIR also named brother of former Union minister Santosh Bagrodia, Satish Bagrodia and Pratap Aggarwal, Chairman and Managing Director of IDS Infotech in the case. According to Reuters, the investigation into the Italian firm Finmeccanica, which started more than a year ago, is one of a series of corruption scandals in defence dealmaking in India. 2012 Coal block allocation scam: Dubbed as Coalgate by the media, the scam once again exposed corruption in the higher echelons of power in the country. The scandal involves allocation of the countrys coal deposits to public and private sector companies by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The office of Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG), in a draft report in March 2012, accused the government of allocating coal blocks in an arbitrary manner during the period 2004–2009, causing a loss of Rs1.86 lakh crore. Initially the loss was pegged at over Rs10 lakh crore, but the CAG revised it to Rs1.86 lakh crore after leaving out PSUs from its final report. The BJP lodged a complaint regarding the matter which led to a CBI probe into the scam and demanded Prime Minister Manmohan Singhs resignation. However, Singh read a statement in the Parliament on 27 August 2012 refuting the CAGs report. The scandal caused a lot of furor both inside and outside the Parliament due to its magnitude. The scandal got murkier when 43 files containing crucial information on how the coal fields were allocated to private firms went missing. Dr Manmohan Singh was in charge of the Coal Ministry between 2006 and 2009. Some of the files missing contain information on allocations of coal fields during this period. After a lot of hammering by the Opposition, all except seven files were traced and sent to the CBI to further the probe. 2013 Railgate: On May 3, 2013, CBI arrested former Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansals nephew, Vijay Singla, from Chandigarh for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs90 lakh from Narayana Rao Manjunath and Sandeep Goyal on behalf of Mahesh Kumar, a member of the Indian Railway Board, in exchange of getting a higher ranking position on the Railway Board. Suspecting Bansals involvement in the scandal, the CBI started scrutinising all recruitments, transfers, postings and promotions since October 28, 2012, the day Bansal took charge of the ministry. The probe revealed that during Bansals term as finance minister in 2007, borrowings of Theon, a company owned by his wife and sons, from Canara Bank had gone up to Rs23 crore from Rs7 crore. As Congress higher-ups started feeling the heat of the scam, party president Sonia Gandhi said that the party would not spare anybody mired in corruption. Following Gandhis statement, Bansal was forced to step down on May 10, 2013. His nephew Singla and Mahesh Kumar were arrested after the investigating agency traced them with the help of telephonic conversations between the two. 2011 Tatra truck scam: Top officials of Bharat Earth Movers Ltd (BEML), a defence public sector undertaking, and the defence ministry siphoned off Rs750 crore in bribes and commissions over the past 14 years in the purchase of components for Tatra trucks. For over a decade, the BEML flouted defence procurement guidelines and sold Tatra trucks to the army at an inflated price. Flouting defence ministry guidelines, BEML, formerly Bharat Earth Movers Limited, a Rs3,500 crore company in which the government of India is the majority shareholder, has been buying components for the 6x6 and 8x8 trucks from a middleman in London. The defence procurement guidelines clearly mention that all purchases are to be made from the original equipment manufacturer (OEM). However, a DNA investigation revealed that BEML, was dealing with Tatra Sipox (UK) Ltd, which is neither the OEM nor a subsidiary of the OEM. However, no action was taken by the government until former Army Chief General VK Singh, in an interview, admitted that he was offered bribe of Rs14 crore for clearing the purchase of 600 substandard Tatra-all-terrain vehicles. Following this revelation, Defence Minister AK Antony was forced to order a CBI probe into the scam. 2011 Antrix Devas deal: The scam involves former ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair and three other scientists who were responsible for a controversial contract between Antrix Corporation and Devas Multimedia Private Limited on January 28, 2005. Under the deal, Antrix was to provide 70 MHz of S-Band wavelength to Devas for broadcasting purposes. This was to be done by ISRO leasing out S-band transponders in two satellites (GSAT6 and GSAT6A) to Devas. A CAG report revealed that the department of space (DoS) had violated rules and policies for approving the agreement. The audit report pegged the loss at Rs200,000 crore. It was revealed that the DoS got approvals to build the satellites without disclosing the fact that they were to be utilised primarily for Devas benefit. 2010 2G spectrum:
Posted on: Mon, 07 Apr 2014 10:18:28 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015