Divyan Infra Junction P Ltd: Over 3,500 T sold as a FAKE Project.

Instead of reprimanding, censuring, and punishing the officers involved in the FAKE Project Scam, management kept on rewarding them with promotions and prize postings, giving fillip and encouragement to others to emulate their wrong doings.

Apart from Venkatesh Infra Projects P Ltd & Avon Steel Industries P Ltd, there are numerous complaints on Fake Projects, accompanied with amply sufficient proofs, available with SAIL Vigilance but the officials responsible for all the illegal supplies continue to enjoy prized, sensitive & lucrative posts. This is precisely the reason, even scathing remarks of LOKPAL in its order dated Jan 10, 2024, could not deter few officers from supplying to the Fake Projects.

With joining of A K Tripathi as new CVO SAIL, who is also a Joint Secretary in Ministry of Steel, would one see change in approach of vigilance or the customs & traditions set by earlier CVO S N Gupta would continue?

In addition, for a better tomorrow, SAIL is also expected to get new CMD on Apr 02, 2026. It would be interesting to see how different is the outlook of the incumbent from the present CMD on corruption and corruption complaints? It is an important question because present CMD SAIL Amerandu Prakash was interested only in eliminating the Whistle Blower and not the corruption.

CMD SAIL had the audacity to dishonestly & unlawfully write “doubtful integrity” in the perverse premature retirement order of the Whistle Blower Rajeev Bhatia to take revenge on him for exposing the corruption but he does not doubt the integrity of any officer, including his own, who are involved in sales to Venkatesh Infra Projects P Ltd, Avon Steel Industries P Ltd and numerous other FAKE Projects.

Old Relations, New Formations

It was the period of Atul Mathur when he was posted as Regional Business Manager for Long Products in the Northern Region of SAIL-CMO, when Divyan Infra Junction P Ltd was incorporated in SAIL system as a FAKE Project at its Kanpur Branch. Why Kanpur ? Mathur was Branch Manager of Kanpur Branch in one of his earlier avatars.

The firm lifted TMT Bars for a few months and went into oblivion. It again surfaced on the scene of Northern Region in July 2021 i.e. in the very next month of Abhijeet Kumar taking over as Regional Manager of the Northern Region. Abhijeet was also Branch Manager of Kanpur Branch in one of his earlier postings.

SAIL sold over 3,500 Tonne of steel products, primarily TMT as the FAKE Project.

Atul Mathur & Abhijeet Kumar

Both joined SAIL in 1991, with Mathur as Management Trainee (Technical) & Abhijeet as Management Trainee (Administration). Another common thing between them is that both were suspended after LOKPAL’s order dated Jan 10, 2024 for their active roles played in the process of supplying steel to Venkatesh Infra Projects P Ltd & Avon Steel Industries P Ltd.

Tenures as Regional Managers

Here we are only talking out their tenures as Regional Managers because in the SAIL CMO system the delegation of power to approve prices for FAKE Projects rests with this post. In some exceptional cases, it requires approval of ED(Sales & ITD) also.

In addition, as per the complaint out of supply of about 2,65,000 Tonne of SWR14 Grade Blooms sold to Avon Steel Industries P Ltd, about 1,65,000 Tonne was sold during the tenure of Abhijeet Kumar as Regional Manager of Northern Region.

Career Growth & Financial irregularities

Instead of reprimanding, censuring, and punishing the officers involved in the FAKE Project Scam, management kept on rewarding them with promotions and prize postings, giving fillip and encouragement to others to emulate their wrong doings.

Abhijeet Kumar : First made RM/WR and then RM/NR. Suspended after LOKPAL’s order dated Jan 10, 2024 for his hyper active role in the process of supplying steel to Venkatesh Infra Projects P Ltd & Avon Steel Industries P Ltd. Though after suspension revocation pending CBI inquiry, the officers were not to be joined back at the positions held while approving/forwarding/initiating the proposal(s) in question, Abhijeet still was joined back as RM/NR. Sources claim that since business with both the firms were transacted by the Northern Region of SAIL-CMO, Abhijeet was brought back as RM there to set some office records pertaining to the two firms before possible CBI raids. Promoted to ED(Marketing) after he was brough back from suspension.

Atul Mathur : Promoted to CGM and after short stay at Kolkata, sent to Mumbai as RM/WR. Promoted to ED(Sales &ITD) in July 2023. Suspended for his role as RM/WR &  CGM(Retail)/HQ [with looking after charge CGM(LP)/HQ]. Brought back to the position of ED(Sales & ITD) i.e. a position to which the new RM/WR & CGM(LP)/HQ report. In other words, he has control on the work jurisdiction of RM/WR & CGM(LP)/HQ  which is not in consonance with the very idea of not bringing back the officers to the positions where they were involved in approval/forwarding/initiation of proposal(s) in question.

V Suresh: Promoted to ED (Coal Import Group) in June 2021, then selected as Director (Commercial)-NMDC in Nov 2023 and approved by ACC in Mar 2023. Suspended after LOKPAL’s order dated Jan 10, 2024 for his hyper active role as RM/NR in the process of supplying steel to Venkatesh Infra Projects P Ltd & Avon Steel Industries P Ltd. Iin Jan 2026, he has been posted as CMD-MOIL.

Vinod Gupta: Played an active role in supply to Fake Projects as RM/SR. Promoted to ED(Commercial) in May 2021. Suspended after LOKPAL’s order dated Jan 10, 2024 for his role in the process of supplying steel to Venkatesh Infra Projects P Ltd.

Rajamohan Suresh: Played hyper active role in supply to Fake Projects as RM/SR. Promoted to ED(Marketing Services) in July 2023. Suspended after LOKPAL’s order dated Jan 10, 2024 for his role in the process of supplying steel to Venkatesh Infra Projects P Ltd.

Munish Ahuja: Played very active role in supply to Fake Projects as RM/ER. Suspended after LOKPAL’s order dated Jan 10, 2024 for his role in the process of supplying steel to Venkatesh Infra Projects P Ltd. After bringing him back from suspension, first made RM/SR and then RM/NR. Despite management wishes, he could not be promoted to ED for reasons beyond control of SAIL, but brought to Kolkata and given the powers of ED(Sales & ITD).

M K Agrawal: As RBM(LP)/NR, he played a pivotal role in supplies to Venkatesh Infra Projects P Ltd & Avon Steel Industries P Ltd and was therefore suspended on Jan 19, 2024. Was promoted to CGM in Feb 2023 after he successfully completed the required job with respect to the above two firms. A few months back he has been given additional charge of CGM(LP), along with CGM(Retail).

Anuraag Dubey: As BM/Ghaziabad, he played a pivotal role in supplies to Venkatesh Infra Projects P Ltd and was therefore suspended on Jan 19, 2024. He also played an active role in supplies to other FAKE Projects like : Subham Builders, Shikha Construction etc. Rewarded with the post of RBM(FP)/ER in Feb 2023 after he successfully completed the required job with respect to Venkatesh, including payment of Rs 4.05 CR towards illegal TOD.

Chandresh Kumar: Southern Region is the number one region in supplies to FAKE Projects. Kumar played the pivotal role, first as RBM(LP)/SR and then as officiating RM/SR. Suspended after LOKPAL’s order dated Jan 10, 2024 for his role in the process of supplying steel to Venkatesh Infra Projects P Ltd. Promoted to CGM after bringing him back from suspension.

Paras Khanduri: Working under BM/Ghaziabad, he played a pivotal role in supplies to Venkatesh Infra Projects P Ltd and was therefore suspended on Jan 19, 2024. With the taking over of Chakravarty as Director(Commercial), he took Paras to his office in Jan 2022. This was a reward posting for him for the well accomplished supplies to the firm. Before remitting his office as D[C], Chakravarty again rewarded Paras with the post of BM-Jaipur. It has been gathered that under some pressure, he has been removed from the chair of BM-Jaipur, it being a sensitive post.

N K Sharma: Suspended after LOKPAL’s order dated Jan 10, 2024 for his role in the process of supplying steel to Venkatesh Infra Projects P Ltd. First rewarded with the post of RBM(FP)/SR in Dec 2022 and then promoted to CGM after bringing him back from suspension.

S Kalra: Suspended after LOKPAL’s order dated Jan 10, 2024 for his role in the process of supplying steel to Venkatesh Infra Projects P Ltd. First rewarded in Dec 2022 with a home town posting as Finance Incharge of Northern Region and then promoted to CGM after bringing him back from suspension.

Virender Negi: Suspended after LOKPAL’s order dated Jan 10, 2024 for his active role in the process of supplying steel to Avon Steel Industries P Ltd. First rewarded in Jan 2021 with the post of BM/Kanpur, then shifted to a bigger branch as BM/Ghaziabad in Feb 2023. A few months back, he was rewarded with the post of RBM(LP)/SR.

Additionally, it has been gathered that apart from Venkatesh Infra Projects P Ltd & Avon Steel Industries P Ltd, there are numerous other complaints on Fake Projects, accompanied with amply sufficient proofs, available with SAIL Vigilance, but the officials responsible for all the illegal supplies continue to enjoy prized, sensitive & lucrative posts. This is precisely the reason, even scathing remarks of LOKPAL in its order dated Jan 10, 2024, could not deter few officers from supplying to the Fake Projects.

One such glaring example is T N Natrajan, who was instrumental in supplies to many FAKE Projects since taking over as RM/WR in July 2023. Despite that he was first promoted to CGM and then posted as Director(Commercial) SAIL in Mar 2026.

With joining of A K Tripathi as new CVO SAIL, who is also a Joint Secretary in Ministry of Steel, would one see change in approach of vigilance or the customs & traditions set by earlier CVO S N Gupta would continue?

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