CVC Seeks Prosecution Of Odisha-Born Retired IAS Officer In INX Media Case

New Delhi: Trouble is brewing for retired Odisha-born Karnataka-cadre IAS officer — former Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises secretary Anup K. Pujari.

The Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) has advised the department of Economic Affairs, under the Ministry of Finance, to issue a sanction to prosecute Pujari, former NITI Aayog CEO Sindhushree Khullar, and current principal secretary in the Himachal Pradesh government, Prabodh Saxena, in the alleged case of corruption involving INX Media.

A report appearing in www.firstpost.com says the CVC sent its request on May 13.

Pujari and Khullar, also a retired IAS officer, and Saxena served in the Department of Economic Affairs, which is the competent authority to grant or refuse a sanction after examining whether the material placed before it by the investigative agency prima facie indicates that an offence has been committed.

Khullar has served as additional secretary in the Department of Economic Affairs from April 11, 2004, to September 11, 2008; Pujari was joint secretary from September 29, 2006, to September 30, 2010; and Saxena served as director of the department from April 2, 2008, to July 13, 2010.

The CVC has also sought sanction to prosecute Rabindra Prasad, the under secretary in the Department of Economic Affairs during the period in question.

The report quoted sources as saying that the CBI was looking into the role of finance ministry officials — including the four mentioned above — in the approval of the ConnectTheDots (FIPB) granted to INX Media.

At its board meeting on May 18, 2007, the FIPB, which functions under the Department of Economic Affairs, had recommended INX Media Pvt Ltd’s proposal for inflow of foreign direct investment up to Rs 4.6 crore, while clearly stating that downstream investment in INX News will require a separate FIPB approval. However, violating the approval, INX Media had made a downstream investment of 26 per cent in the capital of INX News Pvt Ltd without this fresh FIPB approval.

The Income Tax Department sought a clarification from the FIPB in February 2008, and subsequently, a notice was served to INX Media. The CBI has alleged that INX Media took then finance minister P Chidambaram’s son Karti Chidambaram’s help to wriggle out of the situation without any punitive action.

On 26 June, 2008, INX Media had sent a reply to FIPB justifying the investment in INX News. In its FIR, the CBI said: “The concerned officers of the FIPB unit of the Ministry of Finance, by virtue of the influence exercised over them by Karti Chidambaram, not only ignored the serious illegality on the part of INX Media on both counts but also deliberately embarked on showing undue favour to the INX Group by abusing their official position and advised INX News to apply afresh for FIPB approval in respect of the downstream investment that INX Media had already made.”

“In their endeavor to show undue favour to the INX Group, the officers of the FIPB unit also ignored the request of the Department of Revenue to investigate the matter as to how the company made a downstream investment in INX News without an FIPB approval. INX News, by deliberately concealing the fact that they had already received an investment from INX Media to the extent of 26 per cent, including indirect foreign investment in pursuance to a criminal conspiracy, again approached the FIPB unit of the Ministry of Finance on their suggestion and sought permission for the downstream investment. The officials of the Ministry of Finance had favorably considered this deceitful and fallacious proposal, and it was approved by the then finance minister.”

Moreover, the CBI had also alleged that by such partisan and mala fide acts, carried out as part of the criminal conspiracy with the beneficiary company and the intermediaries, senior officials of the Ministry of Finance not only granted illegal approval but also misinformed the sleuths of the I-T department’s investigation wing.

The agency had further alleged that a firm with links to Karti Chidambaram had subsequently received kickbacks for influencing the public servants of the FIPB.

In its FIR dated May 15, 2017, the CBI had named Peter Mukerjea, Indrani Mukerjea, INX Media, INX News, Karti Chidambaram, Chess Management Services Pvt Ltd and unnamed and unknown officials of the Ministry of Finance as accused in the case. Although P Chidambaram was not named in the FIR, the government, earlier in February, had allowed the CBI to prosecute him in the INX Media-FIPB approval case. Saxena, Pujari, Khullar and Prasad, who served in the Department of Economic Affairs during P Chidambaram’s tenure as finance minister, are now under the CVC radar.

Pujari, who retired from the IAS in 2016, has had a distinguished career spanning over four decades. He had taught at Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC), University of Delhi, between 1976 and 1980; and subsequently at the Boston University, at UMASS and at Northeastern University between 1990 and 1992. He has taught Economics at the Summer Programme of JFK School of Government, Harvard University and also at Harvard Institute of International Development (HIID) in their Budget programmes held at Cambridge, MA, USA; Nairobi, Kenya; and Amman, Jordan.

In the civil services he had held various positions in Delhi with Government of India and at Bengaluru with the Karnataka government. He was also India’s deputy with the World Bank, the IMF, the Asian Development Bank and the African Development Bank.

He received his BA (Hons) from Sambalpur University; MA from Delhi School of Economics; MA in Political Economy & a PhD in Economics, both from Boston University. In addition he also has a bachelor’s degree in Law from Delhi University (enrolled as an Advocate with Bar Council of Delhi) and spent a year with the National Defence College on Security and Strategic Studies.