(PIL’S) WILL NOT SOLVE INDIA’S CORRUPTION PROBLEM: MR.  UJJAL DOSANJH* EXPLAINED
BIRLA SAHARA DIARIES: PUBLIC INTEREST LITIGATION’S
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mLUQrFkJZ4
Prashant Bhushan Explains the Sahara-Birla Diaries
sbhushan@vsnl.com
 Mobile:9811164068 .
Published on Nov 23, 2016:
Ajoy Ashirwad of The Wire and prominent lawyer Prashant Bhushan
discuss the recent Sahara-Birla diaries, over-invoicing of coal imports by Reliance and Adani groups, and the Essar tapes.
 Bhushan also talks about demonetisation and whether it is an effective monetary policy that can resolve the issue of black money.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8b2Pcf6soO8
Sahara Birla Diaries Case: Prashant Bhushan Files Affidavit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8b2Pcf6soO8
EDITED AND FORWARDED BY: BALBIR SINGH SOOCH
A. A complaint would have been made to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, leaving it for them to decide whether or not to investigate. And if the activists or politicians wanted a larger probe, they would have publicly demanded an independent Judicial Commission of Inquiry, with a retired judge presiding with all the subpoena powers of a court.
B. Furthermore, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and others mentioned in the case would have been under intense public pressure to resign from their current public positions.
C. The much needed – to my mind, an epic-heroic, impressive – political struggle-fight back, tussle, battle, strain.
BY UJJAL DOSANJH* ON 11/02/2017
** MR. UJJAL DOSANJH* EXPLAINED IN THIS CASE AS UNDER:
1. The much needed – to my mind, an epic-heroic, impressive – political struggle-fight back, tussle, battle, strain.
2. I do realise the whole machinery of government in India is corrupt to the core, with only a few exceptions.
3. Hence the need and reality of the PIL’s expanded scope. But in my part of the world, the Sahara-Birla issue that you took to the Supreme Court would have been raised in the public domain.
4. It seems to me that if India continues to rely heavily on the PIL process to argue and litigate questions of political ethics and morality, it shall forever remain wedded, and limited, to the SITs.
Indian justice won’t flourish. The police won’t improve. Politics won’t change.
5. Only political struggle can make Indians and India corruption free.
No number of PILs will ever accomplish that.
6. A complaint would have been made to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, leaving it for them to decide whether or not to investigate.
And if the activists or politicians wanted a larger probe, they would have publicly demanded an independent Judicial Commission of Inquiry,with a retired judge presiding with all the subpoena powers of a court.
7. Furthermore, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and others mentioned in the case would have been under intense public pressure to resign from their current public positions.
8. I fully understand the police in India – stymied by politics and corruption – won’t act, honestly conduct or complete an investigation if they ever get around to starting one. Numbed by the omnipresent corruption, the public sees everything through a partisan lens. Hence your plea to the court to establish what India calls the ‘court supervised SIT’ for the investigation to be commenced and completed with some integrity.
9. It seems to me that if India continues to rely heavily on the PIL process to argue and litigate questions of political ethics and morality, it shall forever remain wedded, and limited, to the SITs.
Indian justice won’t flourish. The police won’t improve. Politics won’t change.
10. The fact that the CBI won’t even ask for permission to commence an investigation – if one is required – or otherwise start one tells me the whole system is terribly broken; policing, prosecution and most of the judiciary are not independent.
11. That brings me to my final and most important point. You would understand more than most that the courts are limited by laws and precedents. The PILs and SITs, court monitored or not, can only take one so far.
12. Petitions to the courts can’t ever be a complete or a permanent answer to India’s corruption. The people win when public opinion, with or without parliamentary opposition, can bring the government to heel.
13. But still a big thank you for being the PIL man; I know you know it, but make sure Indians also know that it is only a very small part of a very big and much needed – to my mind, an epic-heroic, impressive– political struggle-fight back, tussle, battle, strain.
*** BIRLA SAHARA DIARIES: MR. PRASHANT BHUSHAN EXPLAINS:
BY AJOY ASHIRWAD MAHAPRASHASTA ON 24/11/2016 AND 10 COMMENTS
14. Prominent lawyer Prashant Bhushan discusses the recent Sahara-Birla diaries, over-invoicing of coal imports by Reliance and Adani groups, and the Essar tapes.
15. You recently brought to public notice the Sahara diaries and the Birla papers, which the income tax department also has. Could you tell us about what these documents actually say?
16. In 2013, there was a CBI raid on the Aditya Birla Group of companies, in particular Hindalco, in connection with the coalgate scam. In that raid, apart from recovering Rs 25 crores in cash, the CBI also recovered some information stored in the computer of the CEO of the Birla group – Amitabh. Several documents were recovered – some of them showed bribes being paid to some Environment Project J, which is obviously to the ministry or to the minister of environment. We know that around the same time the Birla group of companies was trying to secure environmental clearances from the ministry of environment for a large number of their projects. So those clearly represented bribes paid for getting the environmental clearances.
 There was another set of documents which was recovered from the computer of
Shubhendu Amitabh, which said, “Gujarat CM – Rs 25 crores. 12 paid. 13?”
17. Unfortunately, though these documents showed payment of bribes and therefore, offences under Prevention of Corruption Act, the CBI did not register any FIR on this matter but just passed the papers on to the income tax (IT) department.
18. Income tax department did a somewhat detailed investigation into the matter. They questioned Amitabh many times in which he admitted that he had written, “Gujarat CM – Rs 25 crores. 12 paid. 13?” But he said that “Gujarat CM” meant Gujarat Alkalis and Chemicals. When asked what the C and M stood for he was unable to answer and the IT department concluded that he was lying.
19. They also found that there was a large amount of cash which was being received through Hawala by the Birla group and was apparently being paid to various people. But despite this the IT department did not refer the matter back to the CBI for investigation of these ostensible offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act and the matter was sought to be buried at that level.
 After that we understand that the Birla group has approached the IT settlement commission for settling the matter and the hearings have been concluded; the matter is likely to be settled after which there is this apprehension that the papers seized in the raids will be returned back to the Birla group.
20. The Sahara raid took place on November 22, 2014. In this raid Rs 137 crores of cash was seized from their offices in Noida, from the corporate office of the chairman, and a large number of documents, some loose sheets, computer data from his personal staff were seized, which showed details of proposed as well as actual payments made to various senior political figures. One of the documents which was seized – a printout of a detailed spreadsheet – in which the first
three columns represent the cash the Sahara group received on different dates from different sources and the total comes to Rs 115 crores. Thereafter, this document also represents cash payments to different people on different dates and the places where the payment has been made, and the persons who have taken the payment are also mentioned. It is signed by the IT officer, two witnesses and one of the Sahara officials. Several such documents were recovered in this raid.
There was another one which was partly overlapping with minute differences. For example, in the previous one the payments which were referred to as, “cash given at Ahmedabad, Modiji”, in other documents they are referred to as, “cash given to CM Gujarat”. There are Rs 40 crores given at Ahmedabad to Modiji, Rs 10 crores given to CM of Madhya Pradesh, Rs 4 crores to CM of Chhattisgarh, Rs 1 crore to CM of Delhi which at that time was Ms Sheila Dikshit. These are all payments made between 2013 and March 2014.
21. Despite recovery of such incriminating documents and in such detail which showed pay-offs made to various senior political figures, the IT department did not refer this matter to the CBI for investigation under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
 They apparently prepared some appraisal report which according to my understanding does not deal with these papers and the pay-offs, and these documents were buried. The person who was responsible for burying the documents of both Birla and Sahara was K. V. Chowdary, who was heading the IT investigations at the time and thereafter was appointed, apparently as a reward, as the chief of central vigilance commissioner of the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC).
It was the first time a revenue officer was appointed although there were a number of complaints against him; his name appeared several times in the entry register of the infamous former CBI director, Ranjit Sinha, who was involved in interfering with the income tax assessment of Ponty Chadha. He was also involved in the stock guru scam which is apparently still under investigation. Despite that, Chowdary was still appointed.
 We challenged his as well as the appointment of another person in the CVC. Because of our information that he played a major role in suppressing the information, we have filed an application. When I got these documents in October, I sent a complaint to CVC, CBDT, the Enforcement Directorate, CBI and to the SIT on black money, saying that these are highly incriminating documents and according to the principles laid by the Supreme Court in the Jain Hawala case, these should have been investigated – whether these payments were made, why were they were made, if these were bribes or some other kind of payments – but none of that was done. The matter was sought to be buried.
22. Therefore, we have eventually moved the Supreme Court, filed an application in the petition that we had filed challenging the appointment of the CVC and that application will be heard on Friday.
23. Sahara diaries mention a lot of names but they don’t specifically name the politicians, for example, like you said the Delhi CM and so on. Are there more? Who are the other prominent politicians mentioned in the list?
24. There’s Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Delhi CM at the time, Sheila Dikshit, Chhattisgarh CM Raman Singh and the Gujarat CM at the time, Mr. Modi. Mr. Modi is also personally mentioned as Modiji. Largest payments are made to him in the Sahara diaries, more than Rs 40 crores. One other politician which is mentioned prominently is Shaina NC of the BJP and one of the documents says that she was being asked to intercede with the advocate general of Maharashtra for withdrawal of some case which was pending against Sahara. Perhaps the Sebi case (which was mentioned as the Bombay case in the papers).
25. The Modi government is already in the know of these papers because you have already written to various agencies. What are the kind of replies you got from the government?
26. Well, I only received one response from the CVC after ten days saying, “Will you please confirm whether you have sent this complaint?” I immediately confirmed that I sent this complaint and I am not aware as to what they have done, or whether they have done anything in this matter because unfortunately, it seems that the CVC himself, as the head of investigation of income tax was responsible for suppressing this.
27. The income tax department has already filed an appraisal report back in 2015. What could the Modi government do right now to investigate the matter?
28. Of course, no investigation by an agency controlled by the government would carry any credibility in this matter because the names of top people in the government are mentioned as major recipients of these pay-offs. This would have to be investigated by SIT or some court monitored investigation by the Supreme Court. That is what we had asked for. Investigation in this case was easily possible because the people who are the carriers of the money are mentioned. The IT department had found out that they were employees in the personal staff of the chairman. Uday Sawant, Jaiswal and so on who were mentioned, they were all identified. The telephone and mobile numbers they were using had also been identified. It was easy to find out whether these people who are mentioned as being the carriers of the payment were indeed at those places where the payments are shown to have been made.
 That could have been easily investigated and then these people ought to have been questioned. They would have to explain what they did with the cash which has been shown as received.
29. All that should have been done. Of course, they would deny it but the investigation still needed to go into all these aspects. They could have checked if the persons who have received and delivered the money were present at the place and their phone records would have shown.
30. The Birla papers make it apparent that the minister of environment was made some payments by the group in exchange of certain favours like the environmental clearance Hindalco was seeking at the time. Do the Sahara papers also mention what were the favours done to these companies in exchange of the alleged payments?
31. The Sahara papers don’t mention that. In fact, some of the Sahara papers seem to suggest that these were general kind of payments being made to influential people in order to keep them happy. Perhaps close to the elections, as political donations. But in any case, many of these people were senior public servants. Sahara certainly had operations in all these states – Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Delhi – one would have to investigate if there was any sort of quid pro quo or they were just political or black money donations which have not been shown by politicians or in their party returns. The Sahara papers also mention payment of Rs 15 crores to the BJP office, and all this happens at the time when Mr. Modi had taken over as the [prime ministerial candidate] of the BJP.
32. This brings us to the larger question about the politics-government-corporate nexus. A few months ago you were also highlighting the Essar Tapes, which showed Essar tapping into phones of various prominent persons in the government and elsewhere. A few months ago we also came to know of a scam where both Adani and Ambani and various other private companies over-invoiced the coal that they imported and the burden of which directly passed onto the consumers.
So we have three scams and what do you want to say about the Essar Tapes and the over-invoicing of coal imports?
33. Of course, those are major scams. It’s not just the Essar tapes but also the Essar emails. There was a whistle blower in the corporate office of Essar Corporation who uncovered a very large number of internal emails of Essar which showed a very systematic attempt to bribe a large spectrum of senior public servants, somewhat similar to the Sahara case. Those emails have been with the government; they are subject matter of a petition which I have filed in the Supreme Court.
The government has been asked to respond to that but there has been no response so far. They have just been sitting on this matter because a large number of these pay-offs implicate senior members from the BJP, the ruling party. They implicate Congress people also, just as the Sahara and Birla papers do, but because they also implicate the BJP people this government has just been sitting on them.
34. Similarly, with the over-invoicing of coal by the Adani group as well as some others like Reliance where the department of revenue intelligence itself has uncovered the entire evidence showing over-invoicing through bogus companies registered in tax havens through whom this over-invoicing was done. All this evidence was available with the government but again nothing was done.
I had myself sent two fully documented complaints, one against Mukesh Ambani, which showed that Rs 6500 crores was brought in to four 100% owned Mukesh Ambani companies through a fictitious Singapore company which had no assets, no income, no business. But the largest FDI from Singapore came in through that fictitious company. The Indian high commission in Singapore had at that time, in 2011, written to the ministry of finance saying that this is a very suspicious FDI and needs to be investigated. But the UPA government didn’t do anything about this.
When I came to know, Mr. Modi had just become the prime minister and I sent a complaint to him that this is the evidence which the Indian high commission has itself written, which means that Reliance has siphoned out money from their company through over-invoicing, which is also reported by the CAG in their KG D6 basin, that they had over-invoiced a lot of their purchases and that siphoned out money has been thereafter laundered through this fictitious Singapore company and brought into Mukesh Ambani’s companies. Nothing was done.
35. I wrote the same thing against Anil Ambani. Some investigations were carried out by the IT department. About $750 million were again brought in through the Singapore route through a bogus, fictitious company to 100% Anil Ambani owned companies. These are classic ways of money laundering. Nothing has been done about this.
36. It was well known that participatory notes is one very large anonymous investment device through which black money is laundered and invested in the stock market. Because participatory notes are anonymous you can’t come to know the holder of the notes, they are purchased from outside and through that investments are made in the stock market in India. I had written to Mr. Modi immediately after he became prime minister that you are talking about curbing black money, you need to at least stop these anonymous investment devices like
participatory notes and FDIs from tax haven companies. When a tax haven company makes an investment in India, you can’t come to know as to who are the beneficial owners and shareholders of that company. Therefore, ways like the Singapore route are easy to launder illicit money. If the prime minister wanted to carry out a surgical strike against black money he should have gone against all these – Essar, Ambanis, Adanis, holders of participatory notes, investments coming from tax havens, or against holders of Swiss bank accounts or people
with their names in the Panama Papers. He would have got lakhs of crores of black money and that would have been a surgical strike on the people who are known to be holding black money in large amounts.
37. Instead of that, this demonetisation is touted as a surgical strike when you know that you are taking out 86% of the currency in circulation. Half of the poor people in this country have no bank accounts, ATM cards and therefore, they are holding all their savings in cash. They can’t use that. They are in very serious trouble.
Farmers are in trouble, people are dying in queues and due to malnutrition, and people are losing their jobs. The whole economy has taken a huge hit, especially the poor people, in the name of carrying out a surgical strike on black money when in fact it is just a ham-handed attempt. As Arun Shourie pointed out, it’s a strike against currency. It’s a strike against the legal tender.

Comments
Slgoyal:
i. It's highly depressing to realise that these are the kind of leaders at the helm of affairs of the country. I worked with the Aditya Birla Group for some years, but I was Mr. nobody. I used to have great reverence for Aditya Babu, being grandson of G D Birla ji.
That their business was not above board, it hurts me to read the above
revelations by Prashant Bhushan ji. The present demonetisation "is touted as a surgical strike when you know that you are taking out 86% of the currency in circulation. Half of the poor people in this country have no bank accounts, ATM cards and therefore, they are holding all their savings in cash. They can’t use that. They are in very serious trouble. Farmers are in trouble, people are dying in queues and due to malnutrition, and people are losing their jobs. The whole economy has taken a huge hit, especially the poor people,.....".
Where surgical strike was needed, they didn't do: "If the prime minister wanted to carry out a surgical strike against black money he should have gone against all these – Essar, Ambanis, Adanis, holders of participatory notes, investments coming from tax havens, or against holders of Swiss bank accounts or people with their names in the Panama Papers. He would have got lakhs of crores of black money and that would have been a surgical strike on the people who are known to
be holding black money in large amounts". I am inclined to believe that this Govt. is persecuting an honest politician Arvind Kejriwal (whatever his other shortcomings may be) because he refuses to tow their nefarious ways of governing.

Deepak Mehndiratta to slgoyal :
ii. Fully agree with you, Goyal ji ! Now that BJP has full majority in parliament and even otherwise all parties agree that corruption and black money must be eliminated - then why not start at home - why not lead by example - why not take a historical step, a simple step - by making it compulsory for all political parties to disclose donors of thousands of crores of unaccounted party funds or to give all such funds to government and in future any contribution of say Rs. 50 and above must be with donor's full identity on record on net ( as AAP doing ). Also, they should submit detailed annual financials to tax authorities in same manner that all business do and information on all their activities should be accessible under RTI. Failure to comply should be punishable with fines, jail terms and even de-listing of party. If only this is done - any expert will tell us that corruption & black money will be reduced by 95% within just a few months.

Pradyumna Reddy:
iii. Supreme Court gave a fitting reply to Prashant Bushan. There is zero prosecutable evidence that there was any money changed. Hawala networks can only be cracked down. If Prashant Bushan actually knows the Hawala case well, he would know that those named were all acquitted for the very same reason the court opined on Friday. The opposition has no strategy at all and is coming off as desperate.

Deepak Mehndiratta to Pradyumna Reddy:
IV.
1. It's the duty of investigating agencies to do this. Since it is known that the existing investigation agencies get pressurised by government, Supreme Court takes over investigation.
2. Unfortunately for the entire nation - our judicial system does not have enough manpower and also is handicapped by its slow procedures - lacs of cases keep pending - even important fast track cases take years. So criminals get away.
3. But let's respect tenacious people like Prashant Bushan & Anna Hazare - we need many more such people to keep our country strong and progressive.

dipiti :
iv. Nothing will be done. There are too many with ZERO self-respect.

Deepak Mehndiratta to dipiti :
v. Have a heart ! We must keep on and on writing ....it's known universally that we must keep on trying, never give up, result will come.

balaji :
vi. Prashant this time cornered!

Ivan M:
vii. It may well be the case all political parties including the BJP and Congress cannot conduct elections without some form of financial inducements directed to the voters. That being the case why are the BJP bhaktis pretending that if not for the Congress we would all be driving around in Benz(es) and flying to the moon with the Jetsons.
The simple truth is the economy is the result of myriad decisions that resulted from the large population and resource poor base that India is endowed with. We had to overcome the stages of primitive accumulation before any dream of catching up with the advanced economies becomes possible. Congress did what it could within the limitations, and these were not trivial achievements. Among many issues that worthy men such Dr Manmohan Singh resolved, was the major one of recurring food shortages in the face of expanding populations - they had overcome the Malthusian trap. The BJP having promised the moon, is finding out the hard way that the production possibilities in the current state of the Indian economy, precludes the sort of dreams that Modi came up with.

venkat :
viii. Even assuming Modi and his party received these slush funds it is chicken feed compared to all the other corruption cases we have before us. I do not consider this worth pursuing. We know very well that it is difficult to survive as a political party without at least a tinge of it. Well meaning people like you should do these things in perspective.

Deepak Mehndiratta to venkat :
ix. So called chicken feed is like the invisible virus that spreads, kills lacs - weakens the nation. There is a saying - in every civilisation - that evil has to be nipped in the bud , that Ram & Sita had to prove their worth even in response to slur from a common human, that Caesar's wife has to be above suspicion...that a leader who wants to inspire the nation to get rid of corruption, it's not sufficient that he appears to be free of corruption, he has to PROVE this without an iota of doubt, through probity, actions & transparency.
x. That is why Ram & Sita will never leave our minds and souls....that is why Gandhi ji will continue to inspire..
..if Modi ji's vision is genuine then he has no choice but to first show that he is clean - if he is not - then he has make himself clean right in front of the people - then we'll all see how huge & great is the love and support that entire nation gives him!

**** SUPREME COURT REFUSES PROBE INTO SAHARA BIRLA PAPERS
BY AJOY ASHIRWAD MAHAPRASHASTA ON 11/01/2017
MR. PRASHANT BHUSHAN’S RESPONSE:
38. Following the court’s refusal to admit the affidavit, Bhushan called the judgment “very unfortunate” and “a setback to the whole campaign against corruption and for probity in public life.”
39. “It is also a black mark on the reputation of the Supreme Court, which had recently distinguished itself by directing independent investigation into the coal scam and the 2G scam. Today’s judgment shows that though the court has often said that law is equal for everyone and ‘be you ever so high the law is above you,’ the court has betrayed this precept,” he said in a statement.
40. He added that the Supreme Court’s judgment would leave a cloud of suspicion hanging over all the persons mentioned in the documents and only an independent investigation could have cleared the air.
41. “It was, therefore, in the interest of those persons mentioned to have themselves sought investigation which would have cleared them if they were not guilty. Unfortunately, those in authority were hell-bent on stonewalling any investigation into this matter and, even more unfortunately, the Supreme Court has also abdicated its constitutional responsibility for ensuring such investigation,” he said.
42. Saying that the judgement will deal a severe blow to the campaign for greater transparency and accountability, Bhushan added that had the IT department or the CBI pursued the cases before, Common Cause and others would not have been forced to take up the matter in court.
WHAT REMAINS IN THE CASE?
What remains in the case?
43. Although the plea against the Sahara and Birla groups has now been dismissed, the original 2015 petition against the appointment of the current CVC, K.V. Chowdary, will now be keenly followed. The dismissed affidavit was only a part of the original appeal against his appointment.
44. The petitioners had alleged that Chowdary was unsuitable for the post as he did not pursue the IT department’s investigations in the Sahara-Birla case in his earlier job as head of the income tax department when junior officials first unearthed the controversial documents.
45. Chowdary was the chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes during the time the CBI handed over the documents from the Birla raids to the IT department.
46. Talking to The Wire, Bhushan had earlier said, “Ideally, the CBI should have investigated the contents of the documents found in its raids. Instead, it handed over the sensitive information to the income tax department, which quietly buried the matter.”
47. Similarly, the IT department remained conspicuously inactive after it seized sensitive documents during its raids on Sahara’s offices in 2014, Bhushan alleged. He said that throughout this period, the CBDT, led by Chowdary, failed to take the case forward.
48. Immediately after his retirement from the post, Chowdary was appointed as the CVC and also as an advisor to the special investigation team that the Modi government constituted to probe black money sources. He also became the first Indian Revenue Service officer to hold the office of CVC – a position usually given to Indian Administrative Service officers.

INSTEAD, THE MUCH NEEDED:
The much needed – to my mind, an epic-heroic, impressive – political struggle-fight back, tussle, battle, strain: MR. UJJAL DOSANJH*
CONCLUDED.
A. A complaint would have been made to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, leaving it for them to decide whether or not to investigate.
And if the activists or politicians wanted a larger probe, they would have publicly demanded an independent Judicial Commission of Inquiry, with a retired judge presiding with all the subpoena powers of a court.
B. Furthermore, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and others mentioned in the case would have been under intense public pressure to resign from their current public positions.
C. The much needed – to my mind, an epic-heroic, impressive – political struggle-fight back, tussle, battle, strain as MR. UJJAL DOSANJH* CONCLUDED.

*MR. UJJAL DOSANJH introduced himself as: “I am a lawyer by training.
But my training was in Canadian law and I was in electoral politics for a long time until my recent retirement. Hence, I am at a disadvantage when it comes to discussing the finer points of Indian law. However, I was the Attorney General of British Columbia (BC) for several years and as such was responsible, among other things, for the courts, policing and prosecutions in the state”.

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