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Supreme Court slams govt on Indian Bank scam

The Supreme Court today came down heavily on the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government at the Centre for 'total inaction' in the Rs 10 billion Indian Bank scam.

The scam was described by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee as 10 times bigger than the urea scam and 20 times bigger than the Bofors scandal when he was leader of the Opposition.

Each of the three judges on the bench took the government to task for slack progress in the investigation, even though those who were in the Opposition then are now in the government.

The court's indictment of the government in the case came during resumed hearing of a public interest petition filed by Janata Party president Dr Subramanian Swamy. He alleged that, since the stalwarts of the Tamil Maanila Congress and followers of G K Moopanar were involved in the looting of the bank, no action was being taken.

Justice S C Agarwal, heading the bench, said, ''Nothing has moved further since March.''

Justice S P Bharucha, the second judge on the bench, observed that there was the same reluctance on the government's part even now though a new party had come to power.

Justice Bharucha expressed surprise that the Central Bureau of Investigation was unable to procure some documents relating to the overdrafts sanctioned by former Indian Bank chairman and managing director N Gopalakrishnan, and now lying at the bank's Singapore branch, on the excuse that the law of that country prohibited their release.

''What is all this? Can the headquarters of the bank not procure the documents from its own branch? What precludes it? Why did not the CBI ask the headquarters for those documents?'' asked Justice Bharucha.

The third judge on the bench, Justice B N Kirpal asked Solicitor General Santosh Hegde to disclose who had said that the Singapore branch could not supply the documents under its law.

Justice Kirpal was also critical of the closure report filed in a Madras court by the CBI on the loans advanced to a shipping firm for the purchase of a non-existent ship because of lack of evidence.

''This is like the urea scam where not a grain of urea had arrived though millions of dollars had been siphoned off by the accused,'' said Justice Kirpal.

The solicitor general assured the court that the government was determined to take to the logical conclusion both the investigation and the follow-up action in the scam. No efforts would be spared to book the culprits, he added.

Hegde said the apprehension that the government was protecting highly connected politicians involved in the scam was not there as a new government had assumed office at the Centre.

He therefore urged the court to grant a long adjournment to enable the government to complete the investigation and inform the court about the outcome.

He said final reports in most of the 25 cases of the scam would be filed within three months.

Adjourning the hearing till July 21, the court directed the government to file its response by July 30 on the points raised by senior counsel Anil Diwan, amicus curiae in the case, in his written submissions filed in the court.

UNI