CBI raids homes of FACT top brass

KOCHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation on Saturday conducted raids on the Udyogamandal office of Fertilizers and Chemicals Travancore Limited (FACT) and 22 other locations, including the homes of senior FACT officials and contractors in Delhi, Hyderabad and Chennai. Starting at 6 am, the CBI raided the homes of FACT CMD, two chief general managers, two general managers and two deputy general managers in connection with alleged financial irregularities in the gypsum deal.The company's own vigilance department, acting on the orders of the central government's department of fertilizers and chemicals, had unearthed a gypsumselling racket to the tune of Rs 8 crore.
Gypsum that was sold to cement manufacturing companies, including Cement Corporation of India, at Rs 600 to Rs 2,100 per tonne, was given to certain intermediaries at Rs 130 per tonne (TOI has accessed documents in this regard). This affected FACT's clientele for gypsum, and the number of firms purchasing gypsum directly from FACT came down from 30 to 11.
In Saturday's raid, CBI seized spotted deer skin from DGM Sreenath Kamath's house at Amman Kovil road in Kochi. The deer skin was handed over to the forest department which registered a case against Kamath under Wildlife Act. There are also reports that CBI recovered unac counted money from the houses of several FACT officials though there was no official confirmation on this. “We conducted the raids in connection with alleged irregularities in the gypsum deal. We can't divulge much details at this point in time,“ a CBI said.
In its report submitted to the department of fertilizers' secretary in October, FACT's vigilance wing recommended major disciplinary action against FACT's CGM (marketing) Ambika I S, CGM (finance) Srinath V Kamath, DGM (special products) Daniel Madhukar and DGM (marketing operations) Panchanan Poddar. Minor disciplinary action was recommended against GM (finance) George Satheesh and GM (internal audit) R Radhakrishnan all these officials were involved in a deal to sell gypsum signed in December 2015 with NSS Trade India Private Limited, a Hyderabadbased company .
According to the modus operandi, after purchasing gypsum from FACT for as low as Rs 130 per tonne, NSS Trade would sell gypsum to other companies at a higher rate of about Rs 600. A clause was also inserted in the agreement between FACT and NSS Trade stating that the private firm would be given invoices at rates it y wanted. “Thus, NSS Trade was given invoices at a higher rate than the agreed purchase cost of Rs 130 per tonne. In an unethical move, the FACT authorities would then deposit the price difference to the private firm's ledger account, thus ensuring that the private firm didn't have to make any fresh investment for recurring purchases,“ said a source connected with the investigation.
The vigilance wing has also recommended cancellation of agreement between NSS Trade and FACT, besides blacklisting NSS Trade and two other companies --Nagarajuna Chemicals Private Limited and its subsidiary Kiah Agrotech.