They blew the whistle and came to grief

Governance Now, Sept 16-30

Abhijit Ghosh


Ghosh, a former general manager of the Central Bank of India who had also worked as an adviser on deputation to the CVC during 2000-05, had complained against the then bank chairperson H A Daruwalla for collecting donations from customers for her alma mater, favouring a travel agency in which her sister worked and forwarding loans of
Rs 12 crore which turned into non-performing assets (NPAs) in less than six months.
Ghosh used the whistleblower resolution (PIDPI of 2004) to approach the CVC in 2005. Later, the finance ministry found the charges correct and sought CVC’s guidance in proceeding against Daruwalla earlier this year because she had retired on December 31, 2008.

But Ghosh faced the music. His identity was disclosed to Daruwala and he was charged with “maligning” her image. The CVC didn’t intervene when he was suspended in October 2008. Former CJI R C Lahoti wrote to the CVC on his behalf but it was ignored. Ghosh retired on March 31, 2010. Just two days before his retirement the suspension was revoked but he is waiting for some of his dues to be cleared.
Ghosh meanwhile approached the Delhi High Court where his case is pending. Ghosh’s RTI applications provided some startling disclosures. In reply to his applications, the bank disclosed it had spent Rs 69.24 lakh on lawyers during 2008-10 to defend Daruwalla. Of this, Rs 48.5 lakh went to Congress spokesman and lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi. The bank also revealed that the decision to engage lawyers had been taken by Daruwalla herself, against whom Ghosh had made corruption charges.

Azam Siddiqui
As a divisional engineer of BSNL in Allahabad, Siddiqui exposed the illegal routing of international calls by Reliance Infocomm, which led to the unearthing of a series of such scams in several parts of the country. When BSNL didn’t take note of it, he wrote to CVC in 2005 under the whistleblowers’ resolution of 2004. CBI and DoT found the charges correct. Three senior officials were transferred and Rs 5 lakh recovered from Reliance Infocomm. Similar probes were ordered in other districts.
But CVC, in its attempt to get the BSNL’s comments/explanations, disclosed his identity and the victimisation began. False charges about unauthorised leave and doing departmental work without written permission were made. His promotion has been held up since 2007.

Siddiqui challenged departmental proceedings and also approached CVC for protection. CVC held that he was not being victimised even after the Patna high court asked it to protect him. The legal battle is now being fought in the supreme court.

S K Nagarwal

Nagarwal, a deputy chief engineer with the railways in Jaipur, had exposed corruption in laying the Eklakhi-Balurghat broad gauge line in West Bengal’s Malda in 2003. This led to 26 railway officials getting chargesheets but he is not made witness in any of the cases.
His identity too was blown off by the CVC. His complaint was forwarded to the railways and soon it found its way to the contractors, who started making threat calls to him.
His woes didn’t stop there. He was harassed with charges like making excess payment for civil works (through fake documents which were subsequently found out), wrongly claiming HRA etc and his promotion to the selection grade was stalled. He was transferred from Malda to Katihar, Guwahati, Jaipur, Ajmer and now he is back in Jaipur. He wrote several letters to CVC for protection but received no response. He is fighting a legal battle and his case is pending with the Rajasthan high court.

Sudhir Chopra

An officer of the Indian Defence Estate Service in Pune, Chopra had exposed corruption in the department by pointing out in 1998 that the ex-maharaja of Kota had been paid Rs 8 crore as “rent” over a period of time while, following the land
ceiling law, he was to be paid only Rs 2 lakh as compensation for the
entire land.

While nothing happened to the case, he was transferred to the Northeast for five years, against a normal tenure of two years. After coming back in 2005, he complained to CVC under the whistleblower resolution. He got no protection and his promotion has been held up since 2007 on flimsy grounds.
The CVC took a bizarre stand that he is not entitled to protection as his complaint was not treated under the whistleblower resolution of 2004.
It also closed the inquiry into the land scam in 2006 saying that the defence ministry was “stonewalling” it. A classic case in which non-cooperation by the department concerned derails the CVC. The whistleblower bill formalises such derailment.