This picture has been sent by U Banerjee, NP
With the help of different sources from the net, I have tried to place chronologically some of the scams which have occurred in India since Independence..I do not claim the list is exhaustive and some may have been missed out of the list.
I have pointed out at the end of each scam the category of people who were involved.
I know you won't be surprised to note that politicians were involved in most scams and most of them from them from the congress party.
That is why they are objecting so much to Anna's Lokpal bill.
You will also note most of the scams except 31, occurred when there was a congress government at the centre
Now the Cat is out of the Bag.
01.Jeep Purchase - 1948 – Rs 80 lakhs -Free India's corruption graph started with V. K. Krishna Menon, then the Indian high commissioner to Britain.He bypassed protocol to sign a deal worth Rs 80 lakh with a foreign firm for the purchase of army jeeps. The case was closed in 1955 and soon after Menon joined the Nehru cabinet.This would be around 64 crores by today's rates.
Who is involved? - A bureaucrat turned Politician - Congress
02.Cycle Imports - 1951 – In the year 1951 the then secretary Ministry of Commerce and Industry, S.A. Venkataraman,was jailed for accepting a bribe in lieu of granting a cycle import quota to a company. However a different view came to light after the contents of Sirajuddin’s diary came to light. After 6 years of cycle scam as in year 1956, it was found that few leaders of Orissa were given commission by the businessmen. A big businessman of North India Muhammad Sirajuddin was found guilty. He was owner of many mines and a diary was found with him that proved that he had relation with many known politicians. But no action was taken in this regard. Consequently, the news got published after some time. Later the then minister of Mines and Fuel Keshav Dev Malviya agreed that he took Rupees 10,000 from a mining owner of Orissa commission. Later Malviya had to resign under pressure of Nehru.
Who is involved? A politician (Congress) and a bureaucrat
03.BHU Funds -1956 – Rs 50.00 lakhs. In one of the first instances of corruption in educational institutions, Benaras Hindu University officials were accused of misappropriation of funds worth Rs 50 lakh.
Who is involved? University officials.
04.Mundhra Scandal - 1957 – It was the media that first hinted there might be a scam involving the sale of shares to LIC, Feroz Gandhi sources the confidential correspondence between the then Finance Minister T.T. Krishnamachari and his principal finance secretary, and raised a question in Parliament on the sale of 'fraudulent' shares to LIC by a Calcutta-based Marwari businessman named Haridas Mundhra. The then Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, set up a one-man commission headed by Justice M.C.Chagla to investigate the matter when it becomes evident that there was a prima facie case. Chagla concluded that Mundhra had sold fictitious shares to LIC, thereby defrauding the insurance behemoth to the tune of Rs. 1.25 crore. Mundhra was sentenced to 22 years in prison. The scam also forced the resignation of T.T.Krishnamachari.
Who is involved? A politician (Congress) colluding with a businessman
05.Teja Loans Scam - 1960 – Shipping magnate Jayant Dharma Teja took loans worth Rs 22 crore to establish the Jayanti Shipping Company. In 1960, the authorities discovered that he was actually siphoning off money to his own account, after which Teja fled the country.
Who is involved? A businessman
06.Pratap Singh Kairon Scam -1963 – Pratap Singh Kairon became the first Indian chief minister to be accused of abusing his power for his own benefit and that of his sons and relatives. He quit a year later.
Who is involved? A politician - Congress
07.Biju Patnaik's - 1965 – Orissa Chief Minister Biju Patnaik was forced to resign after it was discovered that he had favoured his privately-held company Kalinga Tubes in awarding a government contract.
Who is involved? A politician - Congress
08.Maruti Scandal - 1974 – Well before the company was set up, former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's name came up in the first Maruti scandal, where her son Sanjay Gandhi was favoured with a license to make passenger cars.
Who is involved? Indira Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi -Mother and son, both from Congress
09.Kuo Oil Deal - 1976 - The Indian Oil Corporation signed an Rs 2.2-crore oil contract with a non-existent firm in Hong Kong and a kickback was given. The petroleum and chemicals minister was directed to make the purchase.
Who is involved? A bureaucrat.
10.Antulay Trust - 1981 – With the exposure of this scandal concerning A.R. Antulay, then the chief minister of Maharashtra, The Indian Express was reborn. Antulay had garnered Rs 30 crore from businesses dependent on state resources like cement and kept the money in a private trust.
Who is involved? A politician - A R Antulay - Congress
11.HDW Commissions - 1987 - – HDW, the German submarine maker, was blacklisted after allegations that commissions worth Rs 20 crore had been paid. In 2005, the case was finally closed, in HDW's favour.In June 1990, the CBI was authorized to ask the Swiss government to help them in obtaining information regarding HDW’s submarine deal. A letter rogatory was approved by a judge designated for this purpose in Delhi. He granted only a part of the request made by the CBL. The letter rogatory permitted the CBI to seek the assistance of the Swiss authorities in examination of witnesses, recording of statements, and production of documents. A restriction was placed on the CBI’s power to initiate prosecution on the basis of information received after the conclusion of investigations.
Further investigations into the IIDXV sale appear to have halted when the Indian government changed in November 1990.
Mr.CHANDRA SHEKHAR:-Mr.Chandrashekhar was the Prime Minister of India from 10th November 1990 to 21st June 1991.
I wonder who was involved?
Who was involved - A politician
12.Bofors Pay-Off (1987) – A Swedish firm was accused of paying Rs 64 crore to Indian bigwigs, including Rajiv Gandhi, then the prime minister, to secure the purchase of the Bofors gun.
Who was involved? Rajiv Gandhi Congress, Ottavio Quattrocchi, relative of Sonia Gandhi and Win Chadda a commission agent.
13.St Kitts Forgery -1989 – An attempt was made to sully V.P. Singh's Mr Clean image by forging documents to allege that he was a beneficiary of his son Ajeya Singh's account in the First Trust Corp. at St Kitts, with a deposit of $21 million.
Who were involved in the dirty tricks? P V Narsimhan Rao, K K Tewari, Chandrwami, All of the Congress
14.Airbus Scandal - 1990 - Indian Airlines's (IA) signing of the Rs 2,000-crore deal with Airbus instead of Boeing caused a furore following the crash of an A-320. New planes were grounded, causing IA a weekly loss of Rs 25 crore.
Who was involved? Officials of Indian Airlines
15.Solanki Expos̩ - 1992 РAt the World Economic Forum, Madhavsinh Solanki, then the external affairs minister, slipped a letter to his Swiss counterpart asking their government to stop the probe into the Bofors kickbacks. Solanki resigned when India Today broke the story.
Who was involved? A politician - Congress to derail the Bofors probe.
16.Indian Bank Rip-off - 1992 - Aided by M. Gopalakrishnan, then the chairman of the Indian Bank, borrowers-mostly small corporates and exporters from the south-were lent a total of over Rs 1,300 crore, which they never paid back.
Who was involved? A bureaucrat
17.Sugar Import - 1994 - As food minister, Kalpnath Rai presided over the import of sugar at a price higher than that of the market, causing a loss of Rs 650 crore to the exchequer. He resigned following the allegations.
Who was involved? A politician - Congress
18.MS Shoes Scam - 1994 - Anyone who war old enough in 1994 to read will remember the advertisements- tens of them intriguingly headlined: 'Who is Pawan Sachdeva?' For the record, it was the peak of the public issued-led advertising boom and the ads were created by the Delhi branch of Rediffusion. Sachdeva, the promoter of MS Shoes, allegedly used company funds to buy shares (of his own company) and rig prices, prior to a public issue. He is alleged to have colluded with officials in the Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and SBI Caps, which lead-managed the issue, to dupe the public into investing in his Rs. 699-crore public-***-rights issue. Sachdeva was later acquitted
Who was involved? a businessman and bureaucrats
19.JMM Bribes - 1995 – Jharkhand Mukti Morcha leader Shailendra Mahato testified that he and three party members received bribes of Rs 30 lakh to bail out the P.V. Narasimha Rao government in the 1993 no-confidence motion.
Who was involved? A politician, JMM to bail our the Congress
20.In a Pickle - 1996 – Pickle baron Lakhubhai Pathak raised a stink when he accused former Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao and godman Chandraswami of accepting a bribe of Rs 10 lakh from him for securing a paper pulp contract.
Who was involved? A politician - Congress and businessman
21.Telecom Scam - 1996 – Former minister of state for communication Sukh Ram was accused of causing a loss of Rs 1.6 crore to the exchequer by favouring a Hyderabad- based private firm in the purchase of telecom equipment. He, along with two others, was convicted in 2002.
Who was involved? A politician - Congress
22.Fodder Scam - 1996 – The accountant general's concerns about the withdrawal of excess funds by Bihar's animal husbandry department unveiled a Rs 950-crore scam involving Lalu Prasad Yadav, then the state chief minister. He resigned a year later.
Who was involved? A politician who was partner of Congress
23.Urea Deal - 1996 – C.S. Ramakrishnan, MD, National Fertiliser, and a group of businessmen close to the P.V. Narasimha Rao regime fleeced the government and took Rs 133 crore from the import of two lakh tonne of urea, which was never delivered.
Who was involved? Bureaucrats.
24.Hawala Diaries - 1996 – The scandal surfaced following CBI raids on hawala operators in Delhi in 1991. But it was S.K. Jain's diaries that had heads rolling.
Who was involved? Many businessmen and politicians whose identity was not revealed by the CBI
25.CRB Scam - 1997 – Another scam forged by greed and discovered through accident. Chain Roop Bhansali, a smart-talking entrepreneur, created a pyramid financial empire based on high-cost financing. At its peak, his Rs. 1,000-crore financial conglomerate had in its ranks a mutual fund, a financial services company into fixed deposits, and a merchant bank. That Bhansali knew how to work the system became evident when he also managed to secure a provisional banking license. Then his luck ran out. An executive in the State Bank of India Inadvertently discovered that some interest warrants issued by Bhansali were not backed by cash. The bubble finally burst in May 1997, but by that time investors had lost over Rs. 1,000 crore. This was among the first retail scams in India and it was played out, in smaller avatars, across the country-especially in the South where financial services companies promised returns in excess of 20 per cent and decamped with the principal. Bhansali was arrested for a few weeks and released later on bail.
Who was involved? A businessman.
26.Harshad Mehta -1998 - Rs 5,000 crore
He was known as the 'Big Bull'. However, his bull run did not last too long.
He triggered a rise in the Bombay Stock Exchange in the year 1992 by trading in shares at a premium across many segments.
Taking advantages of the loopholes in the banking system, Harshad and his associates triggered a securities scam diverting funds to the tune of about Rs 5,000 crore (Rs 50 billion) from the banks to stockbrokers between April 1991 to May 1992.
Harshad Mehta worked with the New India Assurance Company before he moved ahead to try his luck in the stock markets. Mehta soon mastered the tricks of the trade and set out on dangerous game plan.
Mehta has siphoned off huge sums of money from several banks and millions of investors were conned in the process. His scam was exposed, the markets crashed and he was arrested and banned for life from trading in the stock markets.
He was later charged with 72 criminal offences.
A Special Court also sentenced Sudhir Mehta, Harshad Mehta's brother, and six others, including four bank officials, to rigorous imprisonment ranging from 1 year to 10 years on the charge of duping State Bank of India to the tune of Rs 600 crore (Rs 6 billion) in connection with the securities scam that rocked the financial markets in 1992. He died in 2002 with many litigations still pending against him.
Who was involved? A stock=broker with the connivance of bureaucrats
27.Vanishing Companies Scam - 1998 – A passing remark heard by then Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram resulted in a furore over what was badly-kept secret on Dalal street. Chidambaram was told that hundreds of companies had disappeared after raising moneys form the public. An informal scrutiny revealed that perhaps over 600 companies were missing. Chidambaram ordered a probe by SEBI. The SEBI probe conducted in May 1998 revealed that while many companies are not traded on the bourses at least 80 companies that had rises Rs.330.78 crore were simply missing. Later that year, the Department of Company Affairs (DCA) was asked to probe and penalize these companies. DCA still investigating. Investigations continue to this day.
Who was involved? Businessmen
28.Plantation Companies Scam -1999 – It was as innovative a swindle as any effected in the world. Savvy entrepreneurs convinced gullible investors that given the right irrigation and fertilizer inputs, teak, strawberries, and anything else that could be grown, would grow anywhere in the country. The promoters could afford to collect money from investors and not worry about retribution (or returns, for that matter). For, plantation companies fell under the purview of neither SEBI nor Reserve Bank of India. Indeed, they didn't even come under the scope of the Department decided to change things in 1999, enough investors had been gulled: 653 companies, between them, had raised Rs. 2,563 crore from investors. To date, not many investors have got their principals back, just another affirmation of the old saying about money not growing on trees.
Who was involved? Businessmen
29.Match Fixing -2000 – Mohammed Azharuddin, till then India's cricket captain, was accused of match-fixing. He and Ajay Sharma were banned from playing, while Ajay Jadeja and Manoj Prabhakar were suspended for five years.
Who was involved" Bookies and players
30.Ketan Pareks Scam - 2001 – Ketan Parekh's modus operandi wasn't very different from Harshad Mehta's. If Mehta used banker's receipts, then Parekh used pay orders to ramp up the prices of his favourite scrips (the K-10). Apart from money form the banking system Parekh also rerouted money from corporated like HFCL (Rs. 425 crore), and Zee (Rs. 340 crore) to good effect. He was caught when pay-orders issued by Madhavpura Mercantile Cooperative Bank bounced. Although the total amount involved in the scam was just Rs. 137 crore, the impact was far greater.
Apparently, when a bear cartel sensed Parekh was in trouble, it stepped in and leveraged a dip in the NASDAQ to bear down stock prices. The resultant slump in the markets happened soon after Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha presented what he considered his best budget ever. Under pressure from the government, SEBI investigated the scam and heads began to roll. Among them: the entire management team of BSE, including its president Anand Rathi, CSFB, First Global, and, in an indirect connection, P.S.Subramanyam, the Chairman of UTL Evidently, for the 18 months that PSS was Chairman of UTI, the Trust had mirrored the actions of the bull cartel. The result? When the market tanked, so did the NAV of its holy cow, the US-64.
Who was involved? Stockbrokers
31.Tehelka Sting - 2001 – Tehelka.com exposed the alleged culture of bribery at the Ministry of Defence (India) (MoD) by setting up a bogus London-based company, and contacted MoD officials for selling thermal binoculars to the Government of India.[4][6][7] Tehelka claimed to have filmed Bangaru Laxman (the secretary of the ruling party BJP) taking a bribe for helping the bogus company in procuring government contracts. During the process, Tehelka also met Jaya Jaitly, the head of Samata Party and a close aide of the defence minister George Fernandes. There was an outcry when the scandal broke, and George Fernandes resigned although he was not accused of taking bribe. Laxman also resigned, while Jaya Jaitly accused Tehelka journalists of being Pakistani agents and raised doubts over the authenticity of the tapes. The tapes were sent to UK for forensic examination, and were confirmed as genuine.[6]
Fernandes returned to power soon afterwards, and the inquiry set up to investigate the charges halted upon the resignation of the sitting judge, while his replacement performed an ineffectual job lacking in focus. The government turned the tables on Tehelka with an investigation into its conduct.[5] The main financial backers of Tehelka were made targets of investigations from the customs, the police and the tax authorities. By 2003, the number of salaried employees in the company had reduced from 120 to 1, and the company was practically ruined.[6] The meagre budget of Tehelka, then a startup media firm, was exhausted by legal expenses facing a Commission of Enquiry. According to the Editor Shoma Chaudhury, Tehelka decided to bow out of the new Commission of Enquiry, after Justice Venkatswami was replaced with Justice Phookan.[8]
Who was involved?Politicians - BJP
32.Home Trade Scam - 2002 – Under the pretext of gilt trading, Rs 600 crore was swindled from over 25 cooperative banks in Maharashtra and Gujarat by a Navi Mumbai-based brokerage firm Home Trade. Sanjay Agarwal, CEO of the firm, was arrested in May 2002.
Who was involved? Businessman
33.Stamp Paper Scam - 2003 – ACROSS 72 towns and 18 States and over a period of 10 years, the counterfeit stamp paper scam has dealt the Indian economy a shattering Rs.32,000-crore blow. The figure is official. Apprehensions are that it could be much higher.
It was an operation that respected no system and thrived on the brittle moral fabric of the bureaucracy and its political bosses, exposing the inadequacies of the system. Be it in Maharashtra, where it originated, or in Andhra Pradesh, where it spread its net, or in Karnataka and other States, where it flourished, the scam left a trail of stink that every party is trying to cover up. The scam also throws light on the culpability of officials and political leaders and is yet another piece of evidence of the criminalisation of politics.
From West Bengal to Tamil Nadu and from Uttar Pradesh to Rajasthan, several States figured in the scam and each has lost huge revenues. If the revenue loss in Maharashtra was worth Rs.2,200 crores, the loss was said to be of the order of Rs.1,000 crores a year in A.P. The Karnataka government's annual revenue from the sale of stamp paper was worth Rs.250 crores when Abdul Kareem Telgi, the prime accused in the racket, was arrested. After his arrest, the revenue was in excess of Rs.750 crores.
Surprisingly, the investigations in A.P. fizzled out too soon. There was no progress and the Criminal Investigation Department, which was handling the case, "slept over it". (And this delay is being probed now.) Despite the issue rocking the State Assembly in November 2002, the government confined its attention to countering the charges by the Opposition and highlighting the need to change the Indian Stamps Act.
When the A.P. government sought a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation, the Union Home Secretary disclosed that such a probe was already on in Chandigarh, Delhi and Gujarat. But not all governments were willing to accept such a probe.
Who was involved? Politicians and police of all states in India
34.Hassan Ali Khan - 2007 - Rs 39,120 crore
Pune-based real estate consultant Hassan Ali Khan was the main accused in a case involving alleged money laundering to the tune of $8 billion (Rs 39,120 crore), and suspected tax evasion.
The Mumbai Income-Tax department had sent him a notice demanding Rs 40,000 crore for not disclosing funds in several foreign bank accounts, including $8 billion in an account in UBS AG, Zurich.
Who was involved? Politicians, bureaucrats and businessmen of all parties
35.Oil-for-Food Scandal - 2005 – K. Natwar Singh was unceremoniously dropped from the Cabinet when his name surfaced in the Volcker Report on the Iraq oil-for-food scam.
Who was involved? A politician, Congress.
36.Ramalinga Raju - 2008 - Rs 8,000 crore
The biggest corporate scam in India came from one of the best known businessmen.
Satyam founder Byrraju Ramalinga Raju resigned as its chairman after admitting to cooking up the account books.
His efforts to fill the "fictitious assets with real ones" through Maytas acquisition failed, after which he decided to confess the crime.
With a fraud involving about Rs 8,000 crore (Rs 80 billion), Satyam remains one of India's biggest ever corporate scams.
Who was involved? Business men
37.Scorpene submarine scam - 2006 - Rs 500 - 700 crores commission
In what is billed as one of the biggest defence scandals in India, huge kickbacks vcfv were alleged in the planned purchase of 6 French Scorpene submarines.
Who was involved? Politicians - Congress
38. IPL Scam - 2010
The list of scandals in India is just not ending and becoming grave by every decade. IPL and embezzlement with respect to bidding for various franchisees. The scandal claimed the portfolios of two big-wigs in the form of Shashi Tharoor and former IPL chief Lalit Modi.
Who was involved? A politican, Congress and a businessman
39.2G spectrum scam: - 2010 - Rs 176,000 crore
At a mind-boggling Rs 176,000 crore (Rs 1.76 trillion), the 2G spectrum allocation scam is by far the biggest scam in India. The Supreme Court recently said the spectrum scam has put 'all other scams to shame'.
The incident saw former telecom minister A Raja being forced to resign after the CAG indicted him in the 2G spectrum scam that resulted in a loss of about Rs 176,000 crore to the national exchequer.
Even as investigations in to the scam -- which has now become a political hot potato with the Opposition gunning for the government, it has come to light that politicians, corporate lobbyists, business houses and even the media might have played a big role in it.Corporate big wigs and Kanimozhi, daughter of M Karunanidhi, Dayanidhi Maran have been jailed
The scandal revolves around the alleged irregularities in allotting wireless radio spectrum and licences by the telecom ministry to private operators -- some of whom were ineligible -- in 2007. Licences were given and spectrum allocation was done at an extremely low price leading to a gargantuan loss to the national coffers.
Who was involved? Politicians DMK, and businessmen
40. Commonwealth Games Scam - 2010
Another feather in the cap of Indian scandal list is Commonwealth Games loot. Yes, literally a loot! Even before the long awaited sporting bonanza could see the day of light, the grand event was soaked in the allegations of corruption. It is estimated that out of Rs. 70000 crore spent on the Games, only half the said amount was spent on Indian sportspersons.
The Central Vigilance Commission, involved in probing the alleged corruption in various Commonwealth Games-related projects, has found discrepancies in tenders – like payment to non-existent parties, will-ful delays in execution of contracts, over-inflated price and bungling in purchase of equipment through tendering – and misappropriation of funds.Suresh Kalamdi, the head of the
Money stashed away in Swiss banks: - 2004 - Rs 21 lakh crore
Who was involved? Many politicians, Congress, and bureaucrats
41. The Adarsh Housing Scam - 2010
The Adarsh Housing Society is a cooperative society in the city of Mumbai in India. It was reserved for the war widows and veterans of the Kargil War.
In 2010, the Indian media brought to public the alleged violations of rules at various phases of construction in the Adarsh Society. Questions were raised on the manner in which apartments in the building were allocated to bureaucrats, politicians and army personnel who had nothing to do with Kargil War and the way in which clearances were obtained for the construction of the building of the Adarsh Society. The Adarsh society high-rise was constructed in the Colaba locality of Mumbai, which is considered a sensitive coastal area by the Indian Defence forces and houses various Indian Defense establishments. The society is also alleged to have violated the Indian environment ministry rules. Activists like Medha Patkar had been trying to uncover the problems since at least 2004. It had led to resignation of the then Chief Minister, Ashok Chavan.
Several inquiries have been ordered by the army and the Government to probe into the irregularities. Some of the current occupants of the flats in the Adarsh co-operative society building have offered to vacate their flats at the earliest, denying allegations that they were alloted flats because they influenced or helped, in some manner, the construction of the society by violating the rules
Who were involved? A politician - Congress
42.Post-Independence, India lost a staggering $462 billion, or about Rs 21 lakh crore, in illicit financial flows due to tax evasion, crime and corruption, a research and advocacy group has said in a report.
The report released by Washington-based Global Financial Integrity (GFI) found that the faster rates of economic growth since economic reform started in 1991 led to a deterioration of income distribution which led to more illicit flows from India.
According to the primary findings of the report titled 'The Drivers and Dynamics of Illicit Financial Flows from India: 1948-2008', India lost a total of $213 billion in illicit financial flows (or illegal capital flight).
These illicit financial flows were generally the product of: tax evasion, corruption, bribery and kickbacks, and criminal activities.
"The present value of India's total illicit financial flows (IFFs) is at least $462 billion. This is based on the short-term US Treasury bill rate as a proxy for the rate of return on assets.
India's aggregate illicit flows are more than twice the current external debt of $230 billion," the report said.
Based on the last five years of the study, 2004-2008, India lost assets at a rate of US $19 billion per year
Who was involved? Politicians, bureaucrats and businessman.
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