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Sant Singh Chatwal Deconstructed
Not Just the
CBI: Three criminal complaints with the Kerala Police, four cases in
Delhi
and Kerala High Courts
WSN Bureau
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Kochi
Police Commissioner Manoj Abraham said they would “speed up the
process” of taking action against the businessmen. “This is a fraud
worth Rs 20 crore and the case has international ramifications. We
had gone to nab the businessmen after midnight after verifying their
presence in the hotel,” he said. |
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 President Barack
Obama turned down his offer of raising $10 million (Rs 45 crore)
through a fundraising event. India's President Pratibha Patil asked
for clarifications on his antecedents. Sections of Indian media
warned the government and the people at large about his troublesome
controversial and shady past. But
New Delhi
did not listen.
It was in a
tearing hurry to honor Sant Singh Chatwal.
Sant Singh
Chatwal, on his part, is also in a tearing hurry to personally visit
India to collect his award. "Absolutely. I'm going," he said.
Unfortunately,
things are still stuck, and no one is putting serious money on any
bet that he will get the award. Meanwhile, so many skeletons are
tumbling from the cupboards that Chatwal is stewing in his juices.
The award to
Chatwal became controversial following the revelation that the
Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had registered five cases --
related to defrauding banks against him between 1992 and 1994.
Three of the cases were closed, while Chatwal was acquitted in the
other two. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has questioned the
propriety of honouring such a man.
But there is
more.
 India's Home
Ministry was forced to issue a clarification defending the award of
a Padma Bhushan to Chatwal. Now, it is facing the heat because of
that clarification. “Three cases (of alleged bank fraud) were closed
by CBI...chargesheets were filed by CBI in two cases... (in which)
the Court discharged Shri Chatwal. As per available reports, there
is nothing adverse on record against Shri Chatwal.”
That's India's
Union Home Ministry on January 27 trying to defend the Government’s
decision to honour Chatwal. But there is no mention about whether
the Ministry looked beyond the CBI.
Now, media
reports have brought out that there are three criminal complaints
with the Kerala Police, four cases in Delhi and Kerala High Courts
that name Chatwal and his associates. All these were filed or
registered after April last year and in two of these, Chatwal was
served summons as recently as last month.
These cases
relate to Chatwal’s Dream Hotel in
Kochi,
opened on
April 5, 2009,
at a gala launch party with the red ribbon being cut by none other
than T K A Nair, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister. Several
businessmen and “friends” flew in from New Delhi and New York and
these included prominent contractors and suppliers who had signed
contracts for renovating and refurbishing the hotel.
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One
complaint alleges that on the very night of the hotel’s launch
party, the businessmen from Delhi were “accosted” by Chatwal’s staff
and subsequently pushed inside police jeeps and kept in
“confinement” for almost 12 hours in the police control room in
Thevara, Kochi. There, they were “coerced” into signing a written
agreement that they jointly owed Rs 6 crore to Chatwal’s company for
“over-charging” him. |
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Assistant
Commissioner of Police in Kochi K G Venugopal, when asked about the
status of the complaints, said: “We are cross-checking the details.”
Chatwal’s lawyer in Kochi, Mathew Kurian, when contacted, declined
to comment.
But court and
police records obtained and revealed by India's leading newspaper
The Indian Express show that the complainants allege non-payment of
bills, even physical intimidation, “torture,” and harassment:
* Ramesh Sharma,
proprietor of a Delhi-based hotel construction firm, has filed a
suit for recovery of Rs 3.42 crore from Chatwal’s hotel venture.
Sharma declined to comment but his lawyer, Sachin Puri, said: “This
is a bizarre case of harassment and suits filed against the
defendant show what a premium there is on corruption.”
* Jagdish
Khandelwal, the proprietor of home furnishings store Jagdish Store,
has filed a suit in the Delhi High Court for recovery of Rs 20.5
lakh and damages of Rs 10 lakh. He has even complained to the
National Human Rights Commission and sought police protection.
Khandelwal was
quoted by the newspaper as saying: “If someone like Chatwal gets a
Padma Bhushan, it means he is being supported by the senior most
people in Government. What happened was a traumatic experience for
me.”
* Nirmal
Khandelwal, proprietor of FCML Projects, a leading company for
supplies of hardware and bath fittings, has also moved the Delhi
High Court for a recovery of Rs 20.2 lakh. His lawyer, D S Narula,
said, “Chatwal has only last month received the notice in our case
and recovery proceedings should now commence.”
 Meanwhile,
Sharma, Jagdish Khandelwal, Nirmal Khandelwal and a former member of
Chatwal’s top management, Ram Gupta, also filed a joint criminal
complaint with the Ernakulam Police on April 19, 2009.
That complaint
alleges that on the very night of the launch party, the businessmen
from Delhi, along with Gupta, were “accosted” by Chatwal’s staff and
subsequently pushed inside police jeeps and kept in “confinement”
for almost 12 hours in the police control room in Thevara, Kochi.
There, they were
“coerced” into signing a written agreement that they jointly owed Rs
6 crore to Chatwal’s company for “over-charging” him. It was Ram
Gupta who eventually signed a cheque and only then the businessmen
were released. Later, he sent instructions to his bank not to honour
it.
Also “confined”
by Chatwal, according to the complaint, were Dilip Bhandari of
Jaipur-based M/s Floor Works and Services and Kashy K Cherian of
Kochi-based M/s Sherbrooke — both supplied flooring and aluminum to
the hotel.
Soon, the Home
Ministry changed its tonbe and said it was “ascertaining all the
facts” in connection with the fresh criminal complaints and court
cases against Chatwal.
Home Secretary
GK Pillai said, “We are ascertaining all the facts" but no formal
inquiry was ordered.
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President Pratibha Patil asked her office to find out how and why
NRI hotelier Sant Singh Chatwal had made it to the Padma Bhushan
list given the controversy around his discharge in bank fraud cases.
And she signed on the dotted line only after the Government said
that his name could be “deleted” if any adverse finding surfaced
before the ceremony in March. |
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The Ministry
could also seek the views of the National Human Rights Commission
(NHRC), which has been moved in connection with the alleged illegal
confinement and harassment of businessmen after the Dream Hotel
launch. Besides filing criminal complaints with the Kerala police,
and recovery suits in the High Courts of Kerala and Delhi, the
complainants have approached the NHRC and sought police protection,
as they fear a “reprisal attack”.
A copy of their
complaint has been sent to the CBI which had registered five cases
against the US-based hotelier in a major bank fraud case over a
decade ago.
The principal
complainant is Jagdish Khandelwal, proprietor of Jagdish Store. The
complaint has been forwarded to the Kerala government for
verification and action, but “no report has yet been received from
the state”, said an NHRC official.
The sheaf of
suits and complaints naming Chatwal and his hotel company give the
sequence of events as they unfolded after the Dream Hotel launch.
The businessmen have alleged that shortly after they retired to
their hotel rooms, they were pulled out of bed and taken to the
police station, where they were coerced into signing an “agreement”
that they would jointly pay Chatwal Rs 6 crore. This is what the
businessmen have alleged:
• Jagdish
Khandelwal, to NHRC, CBI : “Since we did not consent to the unfair
demands of the police acting at the behest of the accused, during
the whole night we were humiliated, tortured, terrorized and brought
under so much pressure that we were convinced we would not come out
of the confinement alive.”
• Nirmal
Khandelwal, in his petition to Delhi High Court: “According to the
Assistant Commissioner of Police K G Venugopal a criminal complaint
had been filed on behalf of the hotel against me and the other
vendors for overcharging the goods supplied to the company and in
case we wanted to get out of all this mess, we would have to sign
certain papers declaring that no amounts were due by the defendant
(Chatwal) to the vendors and in addition thereto pay money to his
company.”
• Ram Gupta, a
former Managing Director in Chatwal’s company, in a petition to
Delhi High Court: “It is apparent the entire controversy was hatched
by the defendant (Chatwal) by trapping the plantiff (himself) in an
illegal web so as to teach him a lesson¿ The cheque (of Rs 6 crore)
was given by the plantiff under coercion, threat and without free
volition and as such is illegal and no monies are payable on that
account¿”
 • The four
suppliers in a joint criminal complaint to Kerala police: “The
police force was brought into action on the wrong complaint of the
accused. The complainants also request for police protection as
there is a great likelihood of another reprisal attack which may
result in some harm or injury to the person or family of the
complainants¿”
Kochi Police
Commissioner Manoj Abraham said they would “speed up the process” of
taking action against the businessmen. “This is a fraud worth Rs 20
crore and the case has international ramifications. We had gone to
nab the businessmen after midnight after verifying their presence in
the hotel,” he said.
Assistant
Commissioner Venugopal said it was “clear” after visiting Dream
Hotel that there had been over-invoicing on the part of the
suppliers to cheat Chatwal. “The accused in the case were making
baseless allegations about police highhandedness. We are not looking
into such complaints... We do not know what deal had been executed
among them and from where they had reached such a deal,” Venugopal
said.
M K Damodaran,
counsel for Nirmal Khandelwal, countered, “Had it been a genuine
case, the accused would have been produced in court and not granted
bail. The abduction from the hotel and the detention at the police
station was only meant to get the agreement signed and the cheque
executed in favour of Chatwal. Once this was done under duress, the
detainees were released. The clandestine arrest and detention was
illegal and unjustifiable.”
 Chatwal’s lawyer
Mathew Kurian said: “All the cases have originated subsequent to the
police complaint lodged by M/s Middle East Hotel Co. Pvt Ltd. The
complaint was with respect to the fraud and cheating done by a few
of the contractors in collusion with Mr Ram Gupta who happened to be
the MD of the company and was in charge of the renovation works of
Hotel Dream. The police took action and the accused were questioned
and released on bail pending investigation. Under instructions from
the police, a government agency has evaluated the works done by the
contractors and has presented their report.
“FCML has
approached the High Court of Kerala to quash the criminal
proceedings/investigation and the case is pending consideration of
the High Court. In the suit filed by FCML in Delhi High Court for
recovery of Rs 20.2 lakhs, three other vendors have filed their
affidavit stating that they have voluntarily signed an agreement in
which Mr Ram Gupta was authorised and has agreed to return Rs 6
crore to M/s Middle East Hotel Co. Pvt Ltd and that there was no
force or intimidation from any sources in signing the agreement.”
But the very
fact that exposes have forced the home secretary to issue
clarifications and promise of a "re-look" undercuts the assertion
that he had a clean slate. The ministry conveyed the same even to
Rashtrapati Bhavan, claiming the hotelier had an "all clear" from
intelligence agencies.
Earlier, the
home ministry had described Chatwal as a ‘‘tireless advocate of
India’s interests in the US’’ who had been ‘‘working relentlessly
for strengthening bilateral relationships between India and the
United States’’.
Now, the BJP
also wants the government to rethink its decision if it wanted to
avoid "egg on its face."
President
Pratibha Patil asked her office to find out how and why NRI hotelier
Sant Singh Chatwal had made it to the Padma Bhushan list given the
controversy around his discharge in bank fraud cases. And she signed
on the dotted line only after the Government said that his name
could be “deleted” if any adverse finding surfaced before the
ceremony in March. It is now already well known that while top CBI
investigators were for filing the appeal, the Director of
Prosecution opposed it and two CBI directors Vijay Shankar and
Ashwani Kumar endorsed the DoP’s decision to close the cases.
10
February 2010
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