Amid the heat and dust generated by the multi-crore Satyam scandal, at least 11 directors of the National Agricultural Marketing Federation of India (Nafed) face criminal action in a Rs3,700 crore fraud.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday lifted its stay on proceedings pending in the Delhi High Court seeking action against the Nafed directors by a panel comprising a judge and a member of the company affairs ministry. The scam relates to procurement of mustard seeds.
While a bench headed by chief justice KG Balakrishnan allowed petitioner Vikas Jain’s lawyer Sugriv Dubey to make the necessary submission before the high court, it scrapped the high court’s order directing an inquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation.
The apex court had earlier issued notice to Jain on whose petition the high court had passed its interim order. The high court had directed the CBI to register a case against erring Nafed officials, after a report by the comptroller and auditor-general (Cag) indicted them for alleged financial irregularities.
While the high court had observed that “the erring officials should be put behind bars”, the Cag report had said that under the price support scheme (PSS), major loss was incurred in procurement of mustard seed stock between 2000 and 2006.
According to the Cag report, Nafed records claimed subsidies were given to farmers for the procurement of mustard seeds.
But the inquiry found many fictitious farmers in the records. Also, Dubey said quoting the Cag findings, “When the orders were placed, there was no background check on the buyers nor was a security deposit collected. Anyone could have gone and got an order for crores of rupees for procurement.”
Dubey argued that Nafed had divested around Rs3,700 crore, meant for farmers, to its other businesses.
