SAIL ED Sanjay Agrawal: A dog lover and enemy of honest officers
World is a better place to live for dogs but not for Whistle Blowers
Sanjay Agrawal spent about Rs 40,000 on the hotel stay of a dog
The dog in the case reminds us of the famous case of Sanjeev Khirwar and Rinku Dugga, IAS couple who were immediately transferred from Delhi to Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh respectively after controversy of their morning walk, along with their dog, inside Thyagraj Stadium, Delhi erupted. Incidentally, that too happened in 2022. Rinku Dugga, has been compulsorily retired by the Union Government in Aug 2023, on the basis of “public interest”.
Sanjay Agarwal: Enemy of Honest Officers
Sanjay Agarwal is the same officer, who was the Disciplinary Authority in the case of the Whistle Blower Rajeev Bhatia who was suspended on Nov 24, 2022 after he sent the corruption complaints to Soma Mondal and V S Chakravarty, the then Chairman and Director (Commercial) of SAIL on November 17, 2022.
The main charge levelled against him was that the allegations levelled in the complaints are insinuations and lack evidence. They are found to be imaginary, malicious, vexatious, and frivolous. It is noteworthy here that these are the same complaints in which LOKPAL ordered detailed investigations and CBI has lodged two FIRs viz. RC2182024A0021 dated 10.10.2024 and RC2182025A0015 dated 25.07.2025. Ahuja was among the 29 officers who were suspended after the LOKPAL’s order.
Knowing full well that Munish Ahuja is the key player of the SAIL PROJECT SCAM including sales to VENKATESH INFRA PROJECTS P LTD, he was appointed as the Inquiry Officer. Without conducting any investigations himself or inquiring from CVO-SAIL to whom LOKPAL, through CVC, had given the task of investigations in the complaints of the Whistle Blower, It has been gathered that Munish Ahuja proved the charge that the complaints lodged by the Whistle Blower are insinuations and lack evidence. They are found to be imaginary, malicious, vexatious, and frivolous.
In the meanwhile, CVO-SAIL had already submitted the inquiry report who found a lot of substance in the complaints and recommended further inquiry by external agencies to unearth the nexus between SAIL officials and private parties. Based on the above report, the Ministry of Steel had directed CMD SAIL Amerandu Prakash to initiate Regular Departmental Action against Mahesh Chand Agrawal (Samdhi of Sanjay Agrawal). Copy of the report was also handed over to Amerandu.
Despite being fully aware that the complaints of the Whistle Blower are quite substantive, even then he pronounced severe punishment to the Whistle Blower for sending imaginary, malicious, vexatious, and frivolous complaints to Soma and Chakravarty from his GMAIL account.
Sanjay Agarwal favours both : Dubey and his dog
Anurag Dubey was Branch Manager of Ghaziabad at CMO-SAIL from Aug 2018 to Apr 2022. During his tenure he was instrumental in supplying over 1,25,000 Tonne of steel to various FAKE PROJECTS which include VENKATESH INFRA PROJECTS P LTD; OFB TECH P LTD; SHUBHAM BUILDERS; SHIKHA CONSTRUCTION; NOIDA BUILDMART P LTD; SNG CONSTRUCTIONS AND INTERIORS; AJAY KUMAR CONTRACTOR; DIVYAN INFRA JUNCTION P LTD; MADHAV INFRATECH; R.G.BUILDCON P LTD; MURTI INFRATECH etc.
In addition, he along with his finance counterpart Pankuj Agrawal were also instrumental in releasing payment of Turnover Discount (TOD) of Rs 4.05 crores to VENKATESH INFRA PROJECTS P LTD, although the firm had not fulfilled the conditions to get TOD amount under PROJECT MOU signed with the firm on Oct 12, 2020. For detailed story on the TOD payment click on the link below:
Management was extremely pleased and satisfied with the exemplary performance of Dubey and therefore it was the time to recognise and reward his contribution to the kitty of FAKE PROJECTS. In April 2022, he was chosen for the higher responsibility of Regional Business Manager (Flat Products) of Eastern Region and transferred to Kolkata.
As per the policy of SAIL, while moving from one location to other on transfer, officers are allowed about 6 days stay in the Company’s Guest House or a Hotel. In addition, there is an important condition in place that if the Guest House is vacant then Hotel accommodation cannot be provided.
As the Guest House was vacant , the same was allotted to him. He reached Kolkata, along with his family members and a dog. The administration department of CMO-Kolkata informed Dubey that a dog cannot be allowed inside the Company’s Guest House. After a lot of discussions and requests when the entry of the dog was not allowed inside the Guest House, he decided to check into a hotel in Kolkata. It was categorically informed to him that as there is no provision for dogs in the policy, SAIL will not bear the hotel charges.
Regarding hotel stay at Kolkata, SAIL has empanelled few hotels in the city at discounted rates. The followed SOP is that officer who need stay facility puts up a request to the administration department, if Guest House is vacant then the department allots the same otherwise automatically books an accommodation in any empanelled hotel and boarding and lodging charges are billed directly to SAIL. Payments are subsequently released to the hotel by SAIL. Officers are not supposed to pay to the hotel.
In Dubey’s case, since the administration department had already allotted Guest House to him, he booked the hotel by himself and accordingly paid the boarding and lodging charges from his own pocket.
Till that time, it was a clear case without any impropriety and was strictly as per the SAIL rules. But the twist came few months after when Dubey clandestinely initiated a note and get it approved by Sanjay Agarwal and got reimbursement of Rs 40,000 which was paid to hotel.
The policy which governs the hotel and Guest House accommodation does not carry any clause where exception can be made and such an exception can be approved by anybody.
Approval granted by Sanjay Agarwal is a clear case of impropriety and blatant and selective abuse of power to spend tax payers’ money on the stay of a dog in a lavish hotel.
(The above article has been written based on extensive research and inputs from various sources including sources from SAIL)
