1984 Anti-Sikh riots:
Date: Nov 1-4, 1984
Death toll: 3,325 (official)
Sajjan Kumar |
HKL Bhagat |
Background: In the aftermath of former Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi’s assassination by two of her Sikh bodyguards at her official residence on October 31, 1984, the Sikh community was targeted for killings in and around Delhi and Punjab. There were also sporadic incidents of violence against members of the Sikh community in various other parts of the country, but the pogrom was initiated primarily in the National Capital Region of Delhi and in Punjab. For the first time in independent India’s history, Indian Army tanks were rolled out on the streets of Delhi to bring marauding mobs under control.
Prime accused: Congress leaders Jagdish Tytler, Sajjan Kumar and HKL Bhagat were accused of inciting the mob to take up arms against members of the Sikh community in and around Delhi
Current status: Until January 2018, 11 inquiry commissions or investigative teams have been set up to probe the riots and deaths.
Last week, a Supreme Court Bench headed by the Chief Justice of India, Dipak Misra, gave a new three-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) two months’ time to submit a status report on the 186 cases related to the 1984 anti-Sikh violence. This SIT was formed after a supervisory committee appointed by the Supreme Court in August 2017 observed that an earlier SIT set up in February 2015 had closed several cases without proper investigation.
— Compiled by SKD
Babri Mosque Demolition:
Date: December 6, 1992
Death toll: 2,000 (official)
L.K. Advani |
Uma Bharti |
Background: The site where Babri Masjid was located is considered by many Hindus to be the birthplace of Rama, and is referred to as Ram Janmabhoomi. On December 6, 1992, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), an ultra-right Hindu organisation, organised a rally at the site of Babri Masjid, which was attended by 150,000 kar sevaks (volunteers), who were members/supporters of BJP, VHP and other rightist Hindu organisations. As the rally turned increasingly violent, the security forces were outnumbered and the volunteers razed the mosque, sparking incidents of communal violence all across India that lasted months.
Prime accused: First Information Reports (FIR) were filed against 68 people, who were held directly responsible for the razing of the mosque. Those accused included BJP stalwarts Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Lal Krishna Advani, and senior leaders Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharti, Vinay Katiyar. Besides, the then prime minister P.V. Narasimha Rao and the then chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, Kalyan Singh, also came under severe criticism in a judicial report filed by Justice Manmohan Singh Liberhan in 2009.
In March 2015, a petition was filed in Supreme Court, alleging that with a BJP-led government in power at the Centre, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was unlikely to implicate senior BJP leaders involved in the case.
Latest status: A Supreme Court order in April 2017, reinstated criminal conspiracy charges against Advani, Joshi, Bharti and Vinay Katiyar among others.
— Compiled by SKD
2002 Gujarat riots:
Date: February-March 2002
Death toll: 1,044 (official); around 2,000 (unofficial)
Prime accused: On June 2, 2016, a court in Ahmedabad found 24 people guilty in the Gulbarg Society massacre. The judge, however, did not implicate any of the government officials who were then working under Narendra Modi, the then chief minister of Gujarat.
Background: The deaths of 58 Hindu pilgrims in a train-burning incident in Godhra, Gujarat, on February 27 is generally considered to be the trigger that led to the Gujarat riots. However, many observers feel that the Godhra incident was staged to serve as a pretext to unleash a pogrom against Muslims. Modi, the then chief minister, and several government officials were accused of complicity with the marauding mobs. However, in 2012, a Special Investigation Team, constituted by the Supreme Court of India, gave Modi a clean chit. There were incidents of targeted killings of members of the Muslim community. Even infants and pregnant women were not spared. The violence lasted for about a week, but the ripples were felt even months later. The Supreme Court later lambasted the Gujarat Government as “modern day Neros” who looked elsewhere as people were being burnt alive.
Current status: After two years of procedural delays and several acquittals, in 2004, the Supreme Court transferred the key cases to Bombay High Court and ordered the police in Gujarat to reopen 2,000 cases. In June 2106, the Special Court sentenced 11 accused to life in prison, one to 10 years in jail and 12 to seven years in jail.
-- Compiled by SKD
Bofors Scam
Date: The scam first broke out in 1987
Quantum of scam: $10 million (Dh36.78 million)
Ottavio Quattrocchi |
Rajiv Gandhi |
Prime accused: Rajiv Gandhi, the then prime minister of India, Ottavio Quattrocchi, an Italian businessman who had served as a conduit; Win Chadha, an arms dealer, S.P. Bhatnagar, the then defence secretary of India, the Hinduja brothers, Gopichand, Srichand and Prakash, and various officials of the Indian and Swedish governments of the day.
Background: In April 1987, it was reported on a Swedish radio station that kickbacks had been paid to various high-ranking office-bearers in the Indian and Swedish governments to help Swedish arms firm Bofors secure a $1.4 billion deal for the sale of 410 155mm Howitzer artillery guns to the Indian Army. This was followed by a major media expose by an English language daily in India that brought middleman Quattrocchi’s name firmly into the public domain. In 1999, the Central Bureau of Investigation filed a charge sheet that included the names of Rajiv and Quattrocchi as co-accused in the case. In 2004, Delhi High Court quashed the charges of bribery against Rajiv. In 2005, Delhi High Court acquitted the Hinduja trio. While the case was still being heard, Rajiv was assassinated in 1991, while Quattrocchi died of a heart attack in 2013.
Current status: After 12 years since the Delhi High Court threw out charges against the Hinduja brothers, on September 1, last year, the Supreme Court agreed to hear an appeal, challenging the acquittal — thereby breathing fresh life into a scandal that has rocked Indian politics for close to three decades.
— Compiled by SKD
Fodder Scam:
Date: First came to light in 1996
Quantum of scam: $147.4 million (Dh542.13 million)
Lalu Prasad Yadav |
Jagannath Mishra |
Prime accused: Former Bihar chief minister Lalu Yadav, other politicians belonging to Congress, Janata Dal and Rashtriya Janata Dal and several officials of Bihar’s Animal Husbandry Department.
Background: Large-scale financial irregularities in Bihar’s Animal Husbandry Department first came to light in 1996, though allegations of misappropriation of funds had started surfacing from 1985. A vast herd of fictitious livestock was created, for which food, medicines and animal husbandry equipment were fictitiously purchased. In the process, funds worth Rs9.4 billion were embezzled from the state exchequer. A former Congress CM, Jagannath Mishra, was also being investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), but he was later acquitted as nothing incriminating could be established against him.
In 1996, a public interest litigation was filed in the Supreme Court. Later, in March 1996, on the Supreme Court’s directives, Patna High Court ordered a CBI inquiry into the scam. More than 500 people have so far been accused in the case and convicted by various courts.
Current status: Lalu was convicted by the special CBI court in Ranchi on December 23, 2017, and he was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in jail. There are four other cases against Lalu in fodder scam that are still being heard in court. Lalu has so far been indicted in two of the six cases and that too after 21 years of investigations by the CBI and numerous court hearings! The court is still hearing cases against the other accused.
-- Compiled by SKD
Commonwealth Games Scam:
Time: 2010
Quantum of scam: Rs700 billion (Dh40.46 billion)
Suresh Kalmadi |
Lalit Bhanot |
Prime accused: Suresh Kalmadi, chairman of the organising committee, Lalit Bhanot, former secretary of the organising committee, V.K. Verma, former director general of the organising committee.
Background: From the purchase of toilet rolls for the Games Village to building of flyovers, this was one event that had a scam virtually in every nook and corner! The 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi served as a major embarrassment for the Union Government of the time, despite the vast corpus of state funding that the event had received. In July 2010, the Central Vigilance Commission claimed in a damning report that there had been large-scale misappropriation of public money in at least 14 projects associated with the hosting of the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi. In April 2011, CBI arrested Kalmadi on charges of criminal conspiracy and cheating. He was the main accused in the awarding of the Timing-Scoring-Result system to a Swiss firm, causing an extra expense of $15 million to the national exchequer. In February 2013, the special CBI court found all the co-accused guilty of the charges levelled against them.
Current status: On May 25, 2017, the special CBI court handed two-and-a-half-year jail sentences to Raja Aederi and Uday Shankar Bhat for cheating and criminal conspiracy in securing contracts for the renovation of Shivaji Stadium and Talkatora Stadium, venues of the Games. However, the trial of Kalmadi and all the other co-accused — who pleaded not-guilty to charges of cheating and criminal conspiracy involving much bigger amounts — continues.
-- Compiled by SKD
2G Spectrum Case:
Date: April 2011
Quantum of scam: $4.9 billion (Dh18 billion) loss to the national exchequer.
A Raja |
Kanimozhi |
Prime accused: A. Raja, former telecom minister, Kanimozhi, leader of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, and several others.
Background: It was alleged that the Telecom Ministry of the time had undercharged mobile telephone service providers for allocation of 2G spectrum licences. When these licences were being allocated, apparently, a very small time frame was allowed to the bidding companies to submit Letters of Intent, thereby handing an undue advantage to certain companies whose officials had been tipped off in advance. In February 2012, Supreme Court ruled that the allocation of spectrum licences was “unconstitutional and arbitrary” and cancelled all the 122 licences that had been granted under the contentious e-auction conducted when Raja was the telecom minister. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s claim that the government had gained $470 million through the auction and that there was zero loss to the national exchequer was negated by the apex court. According to Time magazine, the 2G spectrum scam in India was among the world’s top-10 instances of abuse of power. Raja, Kanimozi and several others involved in the scam were arrested on the basis of charge sheets filed by the CBI.
Current status: In a 180-degree turnaround in the case, on December 21, 2017, the special court in New Delhi acquitted all those accused in the case, citing insufficient evidence. The court severely reprimanded the CBI for its inability to provide incriminating evidence, even after seven years of waiting. CBI and Enforcement Directorate will now appeal against the acquittal by the special court.
— Compiled by SKD
Coal Scam:
Date: March 2012
Quantum of Scam: $29 billion (Dh106.66 billion).
Dasari Narayan Rao |
Madhu Koda |
Prime accused: Former minister late Dasari Narayan Rao; former chief minister of Jharkhand Madhu Koda; former secretary H.C. Gupta; former joint secretary in Coal Ministry K.S. Kropha; and former director of Coal Ministry K.C. Samaria were named by the CBI as accused. Industrialists Naveen Jindal and Kumar Mangalam Birla were also named in the CBI’s FIR. FIRs were also filed against a dozen companies. Besides, CBI is also looking into the role played by one of its former directors, Ranjit Sinha, in handling the coal scam inquiry.
Background: In its report in March 2012, the Comptroller and Auditor General’s office complained that coal blocks were allocated in a manner between 2004 and 2009, whereby no competitive bidding process was followed. This deprived the national exchequer of an estimated $29 billion. Bribery was cited as the likely reason behind such an unprofessional allocation process. Even the Prime Minister’s Office came under the scanner since the Coal portfolio during the said period was overseen by the then PM Manmohan Singh himself. Manmohan, however, refuted the CAG’s claims, saying that the CAG report was flawed. In March 2015, Manmohan was summoned by the special CBI court.
Current status: On January 17, 2018, the special CBI court highlighted the delay by the federal investigative agency and Enforcement Directorate in progressing with the inquiry. Meanwhile, the Delhi High Court has stayed the order by the special CBI court to sentence Koda to three years in jail for his role in the scam. Moreover, Gupta, Kropha and Samaria were sentenced to two years in jail by the special CBI court, but all three managed to get bail the same day the verdict was announced.
-- Compiled by SKD
