By-Ajay Jha
Going off scot free in one or two cases would not amount to much , said Government Nominee Ashok Thakur while talking to Indian Cooperative. Thakur was reacting to a news report about the Bombay High Court quashing all criminal charges against Alok Ranjan the then Managing Director of agri-cooperative Nafed.
Ranjan was accused in a multi-crore scam pertaining to business dealings with a Mumbai-based private company in non-agricultural commodities. Nafed is alleged to have diverted funds towards buying real estate properties and M F Hussain’s paintings, among other things.
The court earlier observed that there is no circumstantial material on record to indicate that the petitioner was part of the alleged conspiracy or he had gained any pecuniary advantage due to failure on the part of the group to repay the amount of about Rs 149 crore.
”There are 63 tie-up cases and he has been merely exonerated in two. Do you think it’s a big deal”, Thakur asked. Tracing the story of scam and its aftermath Thakur recounted that the Central Registrar had served recovery orders on all the Board members barring two.
”They represented in the court of Appellate Authority, Additional Secretary Dalip Singh who acquitted all of them. It was my letter written to the government through the Central registrar that the latter appealed against the judgment and the matter is alive till today,” said Thakur.
Readers may recall that the business committee of the Nafed in 2003-4 entered into a tie up with many private parties leading to huge losses to the Nafed. Top officials with their “notorious tie-ups” with some private businesses allegedly made the Nafed extend counter guarantees on loans taken by them without any security, with the connivance of a few board members.
The then Central Registrar Mr R K Tiwary had sent recovery orders to several cooperators. The person who topped the list was Homi Rajvansh who owed Rs 110 crore. Rajvansh, an IRS officer was later arrested by CBI which was keeping close tabs on the case. Meena Singh and Vishal Singh, wife and son of late Ajit Singh were shown to owe Rs 64.09 crore each to the Nafed while Alok Ranjan was served a penalty of Rs 19.38 crore.