A unique loot by the corrupt plunderers of SAIL

SAIL officials fraudulently sold over 6,00,000 T to SAIL appointed dealers and firms connected to them, in the name of Projects by giving heavy illegal discounts

Despite SAIL’s own admission that its officials have sold huge volumes of steel to dealers/traders by underhandedly using the guidelines and DoP applicable for genuine projects and infrastructure companies, neither SAIL management nor CVO SAIL nor Steel Ministry has taken any action till date in any complaint.

Further, over 3,75,000 T have been sold by SAIL officials in the name of Projects to the firms which are owned by the promoters/owners of the firms which were already in business with SAIL.

One can visit SAIL website [https://www.sail.co.in/en/dealer-network] to see the list of dealers of TMT Bars. Four links have been given namely Eastern Region SAIL Dealers-List; Western-Region SAIL-Dealers-List; Northern-Region SAIL-Dealers-List and Southern-Region SAIL-Dealers-List. The links throw up a list of the SAIL dealers of TMT Bars in Excel Sheet for the respective regions.

On clicking the links, one finds glaring and conspicuous names of the firms which are dealers of SAIL TMT Bars.

A total of over 1,50,000 T of steel products [primarily TMT Bars] have been sold by SAIL officials in the name of Projects at heavy discounts by illegally using the DoP, to the following 14 firms which are SAIL Dealers as per the list available on the SAIL Website.

In addition, over 4,50,000 T of steel products [primarily TMT Bars] have been sold by SAIL officials in the name of Projects at heavy discounts by illegally using the DoP, to the following 31 firms which are owned by the promoters/owners of the SAIL Dealers mentioned in the list available on the SAIL Website

Further, over 3,75,000 T of steel products [primarily TMT Bars] have been sold by SAIL officials in the name of Projects at heavy discounts by illegally using the DoP, to the following 31 firms which are owned by the promoters/owners of the firms which were already in business with SAIL. By virtue of the acquaintances, SAIL officials were aware of the fact that that the supplied steel products would be traded/re-sold in the market.

Despite SAIL’s own admission that its officials have sold huge volumes of steel to dealers/traders by underhandedly using the guidelines and DoP applicable for genuine projects and infrastructure companies, neither SAIL management nor CVO SAIL nor Steel Ministry has taken any action till date in any complaint. On the contrary, Amarendu Prakash, Ex-CMD SAIL, gave clean chit to Mahesh Chand Agarwal on July 31, 2023 to help him join as Director in OFB Tech Private ltd.

One must recall that Agarwal who was Executive Director (Sales & ITD) at Central Marketing Organisation of SAIL from September 2019 to July 2023, joined OfBusiness [OFB Tech P Ltd] on October 4, 2023 i.e. after superannuating from SAIL on July 31, 2023. Agarwal is one of the key officers of SAIL who is under the scanner of Lokpal/CBI. Before his superannuation the Ministry of Steel asked SAIL to initiate departmental inquiry against him but CMD-SAIL Amarendu Prakash went against the Ministry and released the retiral benefits to him.

Favours of Amarendu Prakash to the corrupt officers of SAIL are not limited to above. The list is endless. However, few salient ones are:

1.   Paid Rs 70 lakhs to legal eagles from SAIL exchequer to defend the corrupt officers before the LOKPAL of India. The complaint of the Whistle Blower Rajeev Bhatia was so authentic that the  legal eagles also failed and LOKPAL handed over the matter to CBI for detailed investigations, sending Rs 70 lakh of SAIL down the drain.

2.  Pending CBI inquiry, brought back the suspended officers and placed them on the sensitive post which are lucrative by nature. Even promoted some of them.

3.  Paid salary difference to the officers for the suspension period and also retiral benefits to some of them, by going against the Ministry’s directive.

4. Harassment and victimization of the Whistle Blower, followed by giving him premature retirement.

Whether the SAIL PROJECT SCAM requires any kind of investigation or it is an already proven case? We leave the readers with this question.

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