New Delhi: The Supreme Court has sought “clear-cut answers” from the Centre and the Arunachal Pradesh government regarding the allegations of awarding of government contracts to family members of Chief Minister Pema Khandu.
“If tenders were not called for, that must also be made clear,” a bench led by the Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna said Tuesday, adding that both the ministries of home affairs and finance must come clean, and file their responses too.
Directing the Arunachal Pradesh government to file its response to the batch of petitions in this case, the top court allowed five-week time to file a detailed affidavit, including details like who were the parties to whom the contracts were awarded.
The bench, also comprising Justices Sanjay Kumar and K.V. Viswanathan, directed the Comptroller & Auditor General of India (CAG) to file a final report, as the earlier one was “neither here nor there”. The case will be heard next on 21 July.
Last year, on 20 March, a bench of Justices Aniruddha Bose and Bela Trivedi had disposed of one of the petitions in this case, with a direction that the allegations be examined by the CAG.
“We don’t want to keep the present petition, which has its genesis in a proceeding framed as a public interest litigation, pending. Let the complaint(s) over which the present petition is founded, be examined by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India,” the bench ruled.
However, on 18 March this year, the court noted that since the CAG report was unclear, and “neither here nor there”, another final report must be submitted before 22 April
Prior to this, the court had also asked the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to file its reply in the present case.
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The allegations against Arunachal govt
The origins of the plea date back to when the late Dorjee Khandu, the father of the Pema Khandu, was the cabinet minister heading the state’s Department of Relief, Rehabilitation and Disaster Management.
Nearly seven years later when Khandu became the CM, the petitioners approached the court with a public interest litigation (PIL), that sought to inquire into the corruption and illegalities relating to food grains under the Sampoorna Gramin Rojgar Yojna (SGRY), which was launched by the Centre in 2001 to provide additional wages, employment, infrastructure, development and food security in rural areas.
Between March 2003 and 2004, an amount of over Rs 3 crore which was allotted to the state by the National Calamity Contingency Fund, for the restoration of roads, minor irrigation projects and land protection schemes, were misused and misappropriated, the plea said.
False bills were raised for 24,8000 metric tonnes of rice which were allotted to the state under the 2001 Yojana, it added.
Besides this, the plea filed by NGOs like ‘Save Mon Region Federation’ and the ‘Voluntary Arunachal Seva’, pointed to irregularities in relief, rehabilitation and disaster management schemes.
It said that around 14 district rehabilitation officers, 16 assistant mineral development officers and other staff like peons, drivers, etc. were illegally appointed. While initially between 2003 to 2004, these officers were appointed on a contract basis, they were regularised later. Similarly, when Dorjee was Minister of the Department of Mines and Minerals, 14 posts were allegedly created through an executive order, and illegal appointments were made.
The plea also requested an inquiry by the CBI, or by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to look into the awarding of public work contracts to the family members of the late chief minister, including his second wife Rinchin Drema and his nephew Tsering Tashi, were awarded government contracts.
Subsequently, Pema Khandu was also made party to this case, causing the top court to direct the Arunachal Pradesh government to furnish details of any government contracts awarded to him as well.
“The minister of this department was Dorjee Khandu, also former CM, till 2011 and then the charge was taken up by his son Pema Khandu, now present Chief Minister. It is a serious cause of concern in view of so many work orders executed by a few selective firms belonging to the minister himself and his family members. This goes against the principles of good governance and transparent administration,” the petition stated.
Dorjee served as the chief minister of Arunachal Pradesh from 2007 until he died in a helicopter crash in 2011.
The state of Arunachal Pradesh is being run like a private company, advocate Prashant Bhushan argued on behalf of the petitioners.
“..When there is evidence of government contract works being allotted only to the firms of family members of the chief Minister and his close associates, then it is reasonable to draw an inference that such favour for government contract works of vast magnitude could not have been possible without direct knowledge, consent, and active support of Sh. Pema Khanclu, Chief Minister himself,” the plea said.
Allegations concerning the misappropriation of Rs 50 lakh, by members of Tawang Animal Husbandry and Dairy Development Cooperative Society were also made. The plea added that the chairman of the Tawang Animal Husband and Dairy Development Cooperative Society was Dorjee’s son, and the cooperative society was “non-existent for all practical purposes”.
Other allegations include the non-completion of projects, illegalities in projects relating to the improvement and upgrading of road networks in Tawang township, and in implementation of the water supply scheme there. For instance, the plea mentioned that contracts worth over Rs 2 crore, were given without issuing notices for inviting tenders. Another instance mentioned was how Pema Khandu’s firm, Brand Eagles, was awarded a Rs 9.47 crore contract as part of the water supply scheme.
Finally, it contended that the funds given by the Centre, under the PM Gramin Sarak Yojana, and those allotted for creating a society that promotes Bodhi language and literature, were misused by the state government. While the former contracts were awarded to Dorjee’s sons, and ranged from Rs 1.55 crore to Rs 24.96 crore, the latter was used for the Tawang Public School instead, which is also owned by the Khandu family, the plea said.
What respondents said
Claiming that the whole case was an “abuse of due process” and concerned only one of the districts of the state, the Arunachal Pradesh government rejected the allegations made in the pleas.
It also alleged that the case was a politically-motivated one, ridden with “wild allegations”, and filed by individuals who were against the state’s development.
On 19 July, 2024, the CBI and the Ministry of Home Affairs filed their responses denying the allegations made in the present case. In its reply, the Centre said that these allegations did not disclose the involvement of any “inter-state racket” having national or international ramifications.
Underlining that the CBI is a specialised investigative government agency that deals with corruption cases concerning public servants and PSUs like those relating to scams and economic crimes, it said that “any further investigation may put strain on the limited resources of the CBI”.
Investigation would also require probe being conducted over a huge geographical area spanning many districts of Arunachal Pradesh, the CBI said, adding that the same would require allocation of both manpower and resources.
Citing the 2010 and 2016 rulings in West Bengal vs Committee for Protection of Democratic & Human Rights (CPDHR), and Pooja Pal vs. Union of India, the top court held that the CBI’s power to conduct investigations must be used sparingly, and “with great caution”.
In the 2010 case, the court had cautioned that the directions to use CBI’s power to conduct investigations “must be exercised sparingly, cautiously and in exceptional situations where it becomes necessary to provide credibility and instil confidence in investigations or where the incident may have national and international ramifications or where such an order may be necessary for doing complete justice and enforcing the fundamental rights.”
Otherwise, the court added, the CBI would be flooded with a large number of cases and may find it difficult to properly investigate even serious cases while losing its credibility and purpose.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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The political leadership of the tribal majority north-eastern states is steeped in corruption. The magnitude of corruption is astounding and these leaders are brazen in their conduct. Most brag about being corrupt and dare people to put them in jail. The Centre just does not care. Any situation arises in the north-east, the Centre just throws a lot of money and expects the problem to disappear. Where the money itself disappears is a question the Centre never asks.
The corruption if the political leadership of these tribal majority states would put even the Nehru-Gandhi family to shame. Such are the fortunes amassed by these leaders.