Commerce - 1 (C1), the firm floated by arms dealer Suresh Nanda, has monopolised the Government’s estimated Rs 3 lakh crore e-tendering business but the Commerce Ministry wing that chose C-1 has come up with a startling claim that “it is not aware” who owns the firm. And that it only got to know in September 2007 after a petition in the High Court that Suresh Nanda, son Sanjeev Nanda and brother Paul Nanda were its shareholders.

The Directorate General of Supplies and Disposals (DGS&D) had made this claim in a response to a questionnaire from The Indian Express which first reported on how C-1, despite the Nandas being under the tax and CBI scanner, is thriving on Government business. Investigation by The Indian Express shows how DGS&D claim that it didn’t know C-1’s antecedents flies in the face of facts.

Although company president Vivek Agarwal claims Nanda isn’t associated with the company any more, the firm’s annual returns submitted to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs in 2006 show that Nanda and son Sanjeev remained directors of the company from its inception in 2000 till September 2006, a month before the CBI raided the firm.

Details of C-1’s shareholding filed with the Ministry show he remains a shareholder, along with son Sanjeev and brother Paul Nanda. The majority holding (1 crore shares) is with Y2K Systems International located in Port Louis, Mauritius. The company has not filed returns for 2006-07.

There is also evidence to show how DGS&D bent over backwards to promote C-1:

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