By Harish Gupta

The charge-sheet has been filed. Nine persons have been indicted. Most of the missing money has been traced to accounts in five overseas banks. The CBI seems to have tied up all loose ends in the well-conceived scam, in which the National Fertilisers Ltd (NFL) was defrauded of Rs 133 crore in 1995. But have they really? Despite a rather convincing case made out by the investigating agency in its charge-sheet filed in the court of Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Prem Kumar in Delhi on December 26, one thing is missing: a face to the hidden hand behind the scandal.

It is the CBI's case that a clutch of businessmen, in connivance with top NFL officials C.K. Ramakrishnan and D.S. Kanwar, had conspired to cheat the fertiliser company of $38 million (Rs 133 crore at the rate prevailing then). According to its investigation, prime accused B. Sanjeeva Rao, nephew of then prime minister P.V. Narasimha Rao, and Sambasiva Rao, the Indian agent of Turkish firm Karsan Ltd, brokered a contract between NFL and Karsan for the supply of two lakh tonnes of urea in 1995. Karsan failed to execute the contract but the money was still remitted to its account in Turkey in November of that year, from where it was distributed among various persons by company executives Tuncay Alankus and Cihan Karanci.

The others named in the charge-sheet are Prakash Chandra Yadav, son of the then Union chemicals and fertilisers minister Ram Lakhan Singh Yadav, London-based A.E. Pinto of the Brazil Trading Company, and D. Mallesham Goud, a director in one of Sambasiva Rao's companies.

These findings, which were uncovered during 18 months of "painstaking" investigation, seem to have exonerated Narasimha Rao's son, P.V. Prabhakar Rao, who was named as the kingpin in the deal by Sambasiva Rao during his interrogation by the CBI. Anand Mohan Krishnamurthy, son of the officer on special duty in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) at the time, P.V.R. Krishnamurthy, has also not been named in the charge-sheet.

Prabhakar Rao was twice interrogated by the CBI in June 1996. But, say sources in the CBI, no raids were ordered on the residential premises of either Prabhakar Rao or Sanjeeva Rao by the then CBI director K. Vijaya Rama Rao, even though Sanjeeva Rao had confessed during his interrogation in Hyderabad that he knew where the money received as kickbacks was stashed. Apparently, Rama Rao pleaded that due to the political uncertainty in the country that July, when Narasimha Rao could have made a comeback after the fall of the BJP government, he could not risk ordering raids on any person connected to the former prime minister. Rama Rao was informed of the scam in early 1996 but delayed the arrest of the key suspects. Sanjeeva Rao and Prakash Yadav were arrested only in June.

The PMO's questionable role in the scandal goes further than just influencing the probe against the prime minister's son and Krishnamurthy. It is no secret that Ramakrishnan was made the chairman cum managing director of the NFL despite his name being absent from the panel considered for the post by the Public Enterprises Selection Board in 1995. It is now believed that he was appointed to the post at the PMO's behest. It is in this context that the names of Prabhakar Rao, Sanjeeva Rao and Krishnamurthy have arisen. Presumably, Ramakrishnan's first assignment in the NFL was to clear the dubious deal with Karsan as a favour to those who had got him the plum posting. Due to the influence exerted by his supporters, Ramakrishnan faced no difficulty in the PMO and files relating to NFL were never held up.

The PMO is also supposed to have played a crucial role in making certain that the contract amount left Indian shores. After the contract was signed on November 9, 1995 -- without the mandatory bank guarantees or the first class Lloyd's insurance cover -- the total amount under the contract was remitted to Karsan's bankers, the Banque Indo-Suez in Geneva, in two instalments. Not surprisingly, the bank returned the money to India on November 24, saying it was not certain about the "genuineness" of the deal. Top officials in the Finance Ministry and the PMO ensured that the money was sent back to Switzerland. While ignoring Banque Indo-Suez's objections, they asked the Turkish company to open a new account in which the money could be deposited. Subsequently, Karsan opened an account with Pictet Bank in Geneva and Ramakrishnan and Kanwar ensured that the money was deposited there five days later.

Surprisingly, the officials of NFL's bank -- the State Bank of India branch at South Extension, Delhi -- involved in clearing the remittances have not been found guilty. They included K. Vikram, deputy general manager, S.D. Malhotra, the assistant general manager, Sunil Sachdeva, manager (international operations) and K.L. Batra, chief manager. Their suspension has now been revoked.

Alankus is believed to have pocketed $28.1 million (Rs 98.35 crore), Karanci $1.1 million (Rs 3.9 crore), and about $3.54 million (Rs 12.4 crore) was doled out as the share of three foreigners also involved in the scam. While Sambasiva Rao was directly paid $0.2 million (Rs 70 lakh), $4 million (Rs 14 crore) was given to Edible Foodstuffs Trading Ltd of Dubai for forwarding to Sambasiva Rao through the hawala route. The Karsan agent paid Sanjeeva Rao a total of Rs 1.02 crore as well as Rs 60 lakh to Mallesham Goud. Prakash Yadav is reported to have received Rs 69 lakh as his share of the booty.

It is now pretty obvious that the PMO as an entity seems to have been involved in the scandal. But the mastermind behind the whole affair hasn't been identified, nor does it look likely that he will ever be. While credit is due to the CBI for unravelling much of the mystery, the hidden hand, it seems, will continue to remain hidden.

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