The curious tale of 3 fake MP letters and 1 top appointment

However,all the three letters have turned out to be fake.

The first letter on July 23,from Murshidabad MP A Mannan Hossain—addressed to the Prime Minister with copies to heads of all investigative agencies—alleged favouritism by ONGC chairman RS Sharma and Director (Offshore) S Vasudeva to a particular firm in awarding contracts. On receiving an acknowledgement of his “letter” from the Prime Minister’s Office,Hossain replied on August 14 that he never wrote it.

He informed that someone had forged his “signature and letterhead.” But unaware that the letter was a fake,the CVC — which also received a copy — sent it to the Petroleum Ministry for “necessary action”. And so did the Cabinet Secretariat,seeking the Ministry’s views on the allegations for placing it before a Group of Officers set up to look into complaints against senior officers of public sector enterprises.

A fortnight after the Public Enterprise Selection Board (PSEB) interview on October 19,the Petroleum Ministry sought vigilance clearance from the Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) for ONGC frontrunner Vasudeva saying that “a few aspects in the matter (complaint) required to be investigated thouroughly and will take some more time”. It also argued that the complaint be rejected as it was received ‘two months’ before the PESB interview—the CVC’s August 2004 order forbids taking cognizance of any complaint received six months prior to the initiation of selection process for senior posts.

The CVC,however,on November 26,cleared the second candidate,R.K. Tyagi ¿ chairman of Pawan Hans Helicopters Ltd ¿ for ONGC chief. For Vasudeva,it set a rider that Hossain’s complaint and “factual position thereof” be placed before the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet. Instead,the ministry pushed ONGC’s Chief Vigilance Officer (CVO) to furnish his findings on the allegations and received a recommendation that both cases be closed. It then approached the CVC again on December 20 for vigilance clearance.

That is when more fake letters came in. The first one came from DMK MP Adhi Sankar who wrote to the PM just two days later almost repeating the corruption charges in Hossain’s letter,and adding that the ONGC CVO had been made ‘pliable’ by sending him on an overseas junket.

A day after Sankar’s letter,the ministry received an undated letter from CPM MP Tapan Sen repeating the same complaint and alleging corruption in a third contract involving another firm. However,this time,the ministry asked Sen to confirm whether he wrote the letter. Sen replied: “As correctly apprehended by you,this is absolutely a forged letter never issued by me or by my office. The signature is also forged as can be easily seen¿Kindly institute an enquiry to find out the source of forging”.

His letterhead was also forged as the complaint bears his address as 601,VP House while the residential complex only has five floors and Sen lives in apartment 501.

Sankar,too,has denied writing the letter. “I have not sent any letter to the PM regarding ONGC matters,” he told The Indian Express over the phone from Tamil Nadu. He said he had been advised bed rest ever since his bypass surgery in November.

As ONGC chief Sharma was to retire on January 31,the Petroleum Ministry asked Department of Personnel (DoPT) to get Vasudeva’s name approved by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) on grounds that the ONGC CVO had concluded that the cases be closed. But the DoPT returned the file saying it needed vigilance clearance before it could “process the proposal further” for the ACC approval.

The logjam continues as the CVC has declined to withdraw its objection saying that its Chief Technical Examiner had found serious lacunae in some of the CVO’s findings.