Urea Scam: Delhi court rejects CBI closure report filed after 22 years
New Delhi, April 3
A Delhi Court has rejected the CBI’s closure report in a Urea Scam case and asked the agency to probe the 22-year delay to ensure that such “miscarriage of justice” does not happen again.
“It is not the CBI’s case that any investigation was going on in the matter after 1999 up to 2021… One fails to understand as to why the same (final report) was being withheld and what purpose the withholding must have been serving,” Special Judge Surinder S Rathi said.
Noting that the last investigation in the case was conducted by the CBI in 1999, the court said it was evident that the agency sat on the report—which was legally unacceptable.
“This is obviously a cause of concern to this Court and also should be a cause of concern for the head of Investigating Agency i.e. Director, CBI,” he said.
The court asked CBI Director to look into the matter and take necessary action as also steps to ensure that such “miscarriage of justice” did not happen again.
It also ordered the joint director of CBI’s anti-corruption unit 1 to inquire into the matter and submit a report.
“Evidently, when the current final report was filed, the IO and the concerned SP conveniently did not discuss anything about this 22 years’ delay, even though they had an opportunity. Such conspicuous and deliberate silence in explaining the delay is legally unacceptable,”
The CBI had registered the urea scam case on May 19, 1996, on allegations that the accused persons entered into criminal conspiracy and cheated the National Fertilizer Limited (NFL) to the tune of Rs 133 crore.
In the main case, several NFL officials, private businessmen and former prime minister P V Narsimha Rao’s nephew B Sanjeeva Rao were convicted.
The case in which the CBI filed its closure report was registered on June 4, 1997 related to the supply of one lakh metric tonnes of urea. The CBI had named former NFL MD CK Ramkrishnan and executive director DS Kanwar, chief executive of Hyderabad-based Sai Krishna Impex M Sambasiva Rao and S Nuthi of USA-based Alabama International INC in its FIR.
The agency filed its closure report against these accused in January 2021, saying no pecuniary loss was caused in the case.
“I do not find any iota of credence in the conclusion arrived at by the Investigating Officer and the SP of CBI when they say that no pecuniary loss was suffered by the Government. The PG Bonds (having a) value (of) USD 3.01 Lakhs in 1995 (Current value Rs 2.28 crores) constituted valuable property…,” the court pointed out in its order rejecting the CBI’s closure report.
There was sufficient material to summon all the four as accused, it added.
Going through the case files, the special judge said the last investigation in this case was carried out on March 11, 1999, and thereafter on March 17, 1999, when the draft final report was prepared.
“Thereafter, only two case diaries were prepared, the last being (on) May 12, 1999. Evidently, the agency sat over it and the final report… was filed before the Special Judge only on January 12, 2021 i.e. after a good gap of mammoth 22 years,” the court noted. PTI inputs taken
