Amerandu Prakash waives Rs 40 lakhs for Anirban Dasgupta

Ministry Silent, Govt Nominee Directors Mute; Independent Directors Voiceless and Improprieties Flourishing.

·        Vigil Mechanism Policy dumped : Keeping Vigil Mechanism complaints of Whistle Blower pending, issued unlawful stigmatic premature retirement order for him.

·        Kept Whistle Blower under suspension to sell steel to FAKE PROJECTS unopposed.

·        Despite the complaint on Venkatesh Infra Projects P Ltd available with him; despite giving assurance to Ministry for system improvements; despite LOKPAL’s order dated Jan 10, 2024; despite suspension of 29 officers, did not stopped sales to FAKE PROJECTS.

·        Paid retiral benefits to Mahesh Chand Agarwal despite directions from Ministry to initiate Departmental Action against him. Misguided Ministry of Steel; LOKPAL; CBI through letter dated July 31,2023.

·        Paid Rs 70 lakhs from SAIL exchequer to lawyers to defend the retired officers in corruption charges before LOKPAL of India. One of the lawyers was daughter of Sanjay Agrawal and daughter-in-law of Mahesh Chand Agarwal, who were alleged in the corruption charges.

·        Contrary to Ministry, paid full salary to 26 officers for the suspended period.

·        Contrary to Ministry, released retiral benefits to the suspended officers.

·        Mocked LOKPAL by dumping its order dated Jan 10, 2024.

·        Corporate Governance and Code of Conduct remained only on paper.

As if above were not enough, another impropriety surfaces.

Anirban Dasgupta and Flat No – 405 : Made for each other

SAIL Property = Personal Property

While Anirban Dasgupta was posted at Chairman’s office, he was allotted Flat No – 405 at Annapurna Tower, Kaushambi, Ghaziabad as his residence. Annapurna Tower is the residential complex for the officers of SAIL, Corporate office, New Delhi.

In Sep 2017, he was selected as CEO, IISCO Steel Plant, Burnpur and was allotted the CEO Bungalow there. In June 2019, he was moved to Bhilai Steel Plant as CEO and allotted CEO Bungalow there. Subsequently, in Feb' 2020 he was appointed as Director (Projects & Business Planning) with additional charge of CEO, BSP. During all these years Flat  No – 405 of  Annapurna Tower, remained in his custody.

There is a policy in SAIL that if company accommodation is available with an officer at some location, then he/she is not allowed to stay in a hotel when he is on tour to that location. The period was marked with COVID pandemic and as a result he largely remained in Bhilai However, whenever Dasgupta came to Delhi from Bhilai, he always availed expensive hotel accommodation with all expenses paid by SAIL.

In Sep 2020, The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) approved the restructuring of the board of SAIL. Dasgupta, who was serving as Director (Project & Business Planning) with additional charge of CEO Bhilai Steel Plant was appointed as Director in-charge of Bhilai Steel Plant (DIC-BSP) as a one-time exception, for the period until completion of his initial term of 5 years as Director (Project & Business Planning) i.e. up-to Jan 31, 2025 or till the date of superannuation, or until further orders, whichever is earlier. In the same restructuring, Amerandu Prakash was also appointed as Director in-charge of Bokaro Steel Plant (DIC-BSL), as a one-time exception.

Coming back to Dasgupta, as DIC-BSP also, on numerous occasions he travelled to Delhi for official work and always availed expensive hotel accommodation with all expenses paid by SAIL which was a violation of the stated policy of SAIL as Flat  No – 405 of  Annapurna Tower, was still with him.

Although his original tenure was till Jan 2025, the government gave him extension and he finally superannuated from the post of DIC-BSP on  April 30, 2025  and vacated Flat  No – 405 of  Annapurna Tower in May 2025.

From the facts given above, it can be said that from Sep 2017 to April 2025 (7 years and 8 months or 92 months) Dasgupta availed the facility of two accommodations of SAIL. Who knows Flat  No – 405 of Annapurna Tower might have been given to somebody on rent ? 

As per Circular No. Pers/FSC/01 dated 18.05.1998, final settlement dues are to be released to the employee on the  occasion farewell to retiring employees. For those who are allotted Company accommodation, except for PF dues, final settlement of remaining dues will be made once the accommodation is vacated. Further as per  Clause 5.1 of the Rules for Retention of Company Accommodation by Ex-employees at City Locations, the maximum permissible period of retention of Company accommodation in Delhi-NCR (Type 'A' City Location) is six months at nominal rates defined in the policy. Beyond six months penal rates will be charged. In one of the current cases for a 3BHK Company accommodation in NCR Rs 43,200 per month has been recovered from an officer with electricity and water charges as extra.

Sources in the Corporate office of SAIL confirm that rent has not been recovered from Dasgupta. The same has been waived by CMD SAIL Amerandu Prakash on the recommendation of Director(Personnel) K K Singh of SAIL. It has also been gathered that Dasgupta and Amerandu are very close to each other owing to colleagues at Chairman’s office and cigarette smoking partners. The waived amount works out to be over Rs 40 lakhs. It has been gathered that chance was taken with the earlier regime also. In addition, hotel charges borne by SAIL for his visits to NCR while holding company accommodation at Kaushambi is against the laid down policy and loss to SAIL.

No concern for Law of the Land

In India, smoking is prohibited in most workplaces and public places under the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regula􀆟on of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act, 2003 (COTPA). Specifically, Section 4 of COTPA prohibits smoking in "public places," which includes workplaces. While exceptions exist for designated smoking areas in hotels (with 30 or more rooms), restaurants (with 30 or more seats), and airports, these areas must adhere to specific regulations.

However, it has been gathered that Amerandu regularly  smokes  while sitting in his lavish office and pollute the office air.

Apart from violation of COTPA, he has been found violating many regulations include Vigil Mechanism; Whistle Blower Protection Mechanism; Code of Conduct applicable for Directors and senior management; CDA Rules; Lokpal Order(s); Laid down policies of business and  Accepted norms of ethics and morality

Why does SAIL need a Whistle Blower to uncover its improprieties ?

Internal Audit and Vigilance either do not bother or compromised ?

Why improprieties happen when code of conduct is applicable ?

Who all are keeping their eyes and ears deliberately closed ?

A similar case had happened at Kolkata. Since Feb 2019, Mahesh Chand Agarwal was occupying the guest house of SAIL located at Middleton Street, Kolkata but was not paying the lodging and boarding charges. It has been gathered that Agarwal had requested the then Chairman SAIL Soma Mondal for a waiver but the proposal was turned down by the corporate office. After turning down the request, the corporate office remained silent on recovery.

Although there is a policy to recover the charges from the salary of the employee, but the then Heads of Personnel and Administration, Sameer Swaroop and Bijaya Mishra played in the hands of Agrawal and did not recover the charges till the Whistle Blower Rajeev Bhatia lodged a formal complaint on Nov 17, 2022 with Soma Mondal and V S Chakravarty, the then Chairman and Director (Commercial) of SAIL along with other complaints of corruption. Though the corruption complaints were buried under the carpet, pressure was mounted on Agrawal to pay the guest house charges of over Rs 6 lakhs. Had the Whistle Blower not raised the issue, Agarwal would have superannuated in July 2023 without paying the charges.

It may be noted that when Leave encashment and gratuity amount of over Rs 60 lakhs have been released to Agrawal by Amerandu Prakash and K K Singh of SAIL  despite directions from Ministry to initiate Departmental Action against him.

(The above article has been written based on extensive research and inputs from various sources including sources from SAIL)