Amerandu Prakash CMD SAIL : Splurges Public Money once again to support the corrupt
SAIL ED, Sanjay Agrawal : A novel
way to extract money from SAIL in the name of family
Whistle
Blower Rajeev Bhatia filed complaints (Ref No 73, 74 & 75 of 2023) regarding
sales of steel products to Venkatesh Infra Projects P
Ltd ; Avon Steel Industries P Ltd and Hi-Tech Pipes Ltd (Group) with LOKPAL
of India.
Paying Rs 70 lakhs to lawyers to
defend officials alleged with corruption charges was in itself Bad Corporate
Governance and a part of it going to daughter and daughter-in-law of alleged
officers is Worst.
LOKPAL has found the complaints of
corruption substantive and handed them over to CBI for detailed investigations
vide its order dated Jan10, 2024. Is it not an obligation on SAIL that Rs 70
lakhs be recovered from Amerandu Prakash? Should the Ministry not recover the
amount from his final settlement amount before his release on Apr 01, 2026
owing to resignation? If not recovered then this act of Amerandu will go a long
way in giving message to the employees of SAIL to indulge in malpractices and
ask for legal assistance from SAIL itself, if caught.
Prior to LOKPAL ordering CBI
investigations, on July 28, 2023, the Ministry of Steel had recommended CBI
inquiry. Before making payment of Rs 70 lakh to lawyers to defend the alleged
officers, propriety demands that Amerandu must have consulted or taken approval
from the Ministry before splurging public money. The least, Amerandu could have
done, instead of paying Rs 70 lakhs clandestinely, must have placed the matter
before the Board where Independent Directors and Government Nominee
Directors(representatives of Ministry)
are present.
When Amerandu defended Soma, she
was Member PESB, a government post under DoPT. Instead of approaching SAIL to
bear the legal expenses, she should have approached Chairperson, PESB or
Secretary, DoPT.
Present CMD SAIL Amerandu Prakash hired
a battery of advocates senior & counsels and paid about Rs 70 lakhs from SAIL
exchequer to defend Soma Mondal,
Mahesh Chand Agarwal & Sanjay Agarwal before LOKPAL in the complaints of serious financial irregularities.
Source : Order dated January 10, 2024 of
Honourable LOKPAL of India
https://lokpalonline.gov.in/lokpalonline/cdn/web_upload/CN73,74and752023_1705052862.pdf
It has also been gathered that Ms. Shefali Agarwal who
appeared for Sanjay Agarwal, is his own daughter. Moreover, she is also
daughter-in-law of Shri Mahesh Chand Agarwal.
As per THE CODE OF CONDUCT FOR BOARD MEMBERS AND SENIOR
MANAGEMENT PERSONNEL OF STEEL AUTHORITY OF INDIA LIMITED, 2015 they must avoid
conducting business with a relative.
https://sail.co.in/sites/default/files/upload/2020-02/code_of_conduct.pdf
As per Appendix-I of the above Code the term “Relative” has
same meaning as defined in Section 2(77) of the Companies Act, 2013 which
is as under:
A person shall be deemed to be a
relative of another, if, and only if,- (a) they are members of a Hindu undivided
family; or (b) they are husband and wife; or (c) the one is related to the
other in the manner indicated in Rule 4 of Companies (Specification of
Definitions Details) Rules, 2014. Under Rule 4, listed relatives are Father (including
step-father); Mother (including step-mother); Son (including step-son); Son’s
wife; Daughter; Daughter’s husband; Brother (including step-brother); and Sister
(including step-sister).
By taking paid services from his daughter, Sanjay Agarwal has violated the Code of Conduct applicable to the Board Members and Senior Management Personnel and hence liable for action.
The information accessed by us from
an internal source reveal the following:
An application was filed by an
Indian Citizen under RTI to get the information on the disciplinary proceeding
conducted against Sanjay Agarwal for the violation of the above Code. In case no disciplinary
proceedings have been conducted, then who provided him the protection or waiver
for the same.
Against RTI, SAIL replied that “The information sought is not available”.
Ministry and SAIL : Perfectly
Synchronised
A formal complaint has also been lodged on CPGRAMS (PMOPG/E/2025/194711). Here again instead of initiating action against Agarwal, a completely arbitrary, ill-conceived, and out of context reply has been given by SAIL.
The complainant appealed against the reply to Appellate Authority Abhijeet Narendra; Joint Secretary, Ministry of Steel. Against the appeal also Narendra avoided to speak about the violation of code of conduct by Sanjay Agarwal and issued an arbitrary ill-conceived, and out of contextspeaking order.
Sources confirm that till date no action has been initiated
against Sanjay Agarwal by SAIL.
It is noteworthy that Company Secretary of SAIL, M B Balakrishnan, is the Compliance Officer for the purpose of implementation of the above Code of Conduct. He has also failed in his duty to act against Sanjay Agarwal.
Narendra has a dual role. Apart from the Appellate Authority as Joint Secretary, Ministry of Steel, he is also the Government Nominee Director on SAIL board. With dual role, he has double reasonability also. He is duty bound to oversee the interests of SAIL as well as of Government of India and Public.
It has been gathered that complaints, both dated July 22, 2024 against CMD SAIL Amerandu Prakash for spending about Rs 70 lakhs from SAIL exchequer to defend Soma Mondal, Mahesh Chand Agarwal & Sanjay Agarwal before LOKPAL is pending with Sandeep Poundrik, Secretary Steel and K K Singh Director(Personnel) [Designated Authority for Vigil Mechanism Policy of SAIL]. Despite numerous reminders, no response has been received by the complainant till date.
It may be noted that the legal services come under the domain
of Director(Personnel). Hence the note for approval of payment of Rs 70 lakh
bears his consent/signatures also.
Vide OM-F.No.18(11)/2016-MGMT dated Jan 24, 2020, Department
of Public Enterprises of Ministry of Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises issued
a detailed memo regarding the role of Government Directors on the Boards of
CPSEs. The same is available at the link given below:
https://www.dpe.gov.in/static/uploads/2025/07/09c5c1ab48cc8909db8313265988b04b.pdf
This is the second story in the series which we have started
on the role of Abhijeet Narendra and other officers of the Ministry of Steel in
the corruption in SAIL.
For the first story click on the link below:
Keep visiting https://www.bureaugram.com for the next
episode on Abhijeet Narendra and other officers of the Ministry of Steel.
(The above article has been written based on extensive research and inputs from various sources including sources from SAIL)
