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CRIME: OFFICIAL CORRUPTION
Corrupt Custom
The arrest of Delhi's excise commissioner may blow
the lid off an industrialist-bureaucrat nexus
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VITAL COG:
Mishra being taken into CBI custody |
Like many bureaucrats
in India, Someshwar Mishra found the fishes and loaves of public office
far too tempting to resist. Last week, the chief commissioner, Central
Excise (Delhi region), was arrested in his office by the CBI for accepting
a Rs 5-lakh bribe from Ashok Chaturvedi, chairman of the Noida-based packaging
firm Flex Industries. Chaturvedi was also arrested, along with his employee
John, under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
Mishra's arrest was another stinging blow in
what has been a humiliating year for the Excise Department. He was in
line for a promotion to the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC)
and was tipped to take over as its chairman in a year's time. His track
record, say insiders, was good, if not impeccable. Ironically, a week
before his arrest, he had lectured his colleagues on taking the high road
to honesty at a function to mark the Vigilance Awareness Week in Delhi.
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Bribe-giver Chaturvedi was the link between
the paan masala lobby and excise officials.
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Mishra is the third big fish netted by the CBI
this year. In February, S.P. Singh, the Visakhapatnam chief excise commissioner,
and two months later, CBEC chairman B.P. Verma were arrested for taking
bribes. Like Mishra, Verma too never practised what he preached: a week
before he was caught, he held forth on the virtues of "integrity"
at a London seminar.
More than Mishra, it is Chaturvedi's arrest
that has created a flutter. Described as "an affable and well-connected
socialite", Chaturvedi is close to politicians and senior bureaucrats
from Delhi and Uttar Pradesh. CBI sources say several Congress and Samajwadi
Party leaders have "been eating out of his hand for years".
Chaturvedi apparently served as a conduit between top paan masala manufacturers
of Kanpur and excise officials, often securing exemptions for the businessmen
by using his contacts with senior officials like Mishra.
If Chaturvedi begins to sing, which he most
likely will in custody, several important people are likely to run for
cover. This might upset some political parties in the run-up to the Uttar
Pradesh assembly elections. Already, Chaturvedi has admitted that Mishra
was on his payroll, contradicting the chief commissioner who feebly told
his interrogators that he had been merely accepting loans from the industrialist.
After the arrest, CBI officers searched Chaturvedi's
Toyota Qualis and found another briefcase with Rs 5 lakh inside which
were meant to be delivered to Mishra's residence at Chanakyapuri the same
day. Raids followed at the Flex headquarters at Noida, Mishra's house
and at Chaturvedi's farmhouse at Mehrauli in south Delhi.
While Chaturvedi's packaging firm, which has
a turnover of Rs 570 crore and caters mostly to paan masala brands like
Rajdarbar, Rajnigandha and Pan Parag, is not of immediate concern to the
CBI, Mishra's assets certainly are.
The CBI recovered Rs 2.12 lakh in cash, Rs 6
lakh worth of fixed deposits receipts and 500 gm of gold from Mishra's
possession. It has also sealed two flats in the Kausambi complex in Ghaziabad
close to Delhi, a five-acre plot in Haryana's Carterpuri and a Maruti
Zen gifted by Chaturvedi. The CBI is now scrutinising 10 bank accounts
of Mishra and probing leads that he may have benami property.
While Chaturvedi's questioning is bound to throw
up some big names, it remains to be seen how effectively the CBI deals
with Mishra and the corruption in the Excise Department. Precedence shows
charge-sheets are seldom filed on time: the ones on Verma and Singh are
yet to be processed.
But the agency is hopeful of achieving a breakthrough.
Says CBI spokesman S.M. Khan: "Our intelligence network among top
customs officials in very strong. We are capitalising on it." Clearly,
Mishra is only the tip of the iceberg.
—Sayantan Chakravarty
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