Whether CMD SAIL Amerandu Prakash misguided Narendra or Narendra compromised ?

Duplicity of Steel Ministry : Premature Retirement for sending corruption complaints, labelling them false and frivolous : Ministry recommends CBI inquiry in the same complaints

A board meeting was scheduled by Steel Authority of India Limited on Feb 11, 2025. It has been gathered that apart from other issues, financial results for Oct-Dec’2024 quarter and proposal for premature retirement of the Whistle Blower was placed before the board for consideration during the meeting.

The list of directors who attended the above meeting is given below which include Shri Abhijeet Narendra, Government Nominee Director on SAIL Board.

Compulsions of SAIL management to take revenge from the Whistle Blower are understandable because even the highest member of SAIL management is under scanner. But what compulsion Narendra and Ministry  has ?

Vide letter No. 1(7)2023-V&R dated July 28, 2023, Ministry of steel recommended for CBI inquiry into complaint No 73 and 74 of the Whistle Blower Rajeev Bhatia pertaining to steel supplies to Venkatesh Infra Projects P Ltd and Avon Steel Industries P Ltd. The relevant portions of the above letter are reproduced below.

On one hand,on July 28,2023, the Ministry of Steel recommends CBI inquiry into complaint No 73 and 74 of the Whistle Blower Rajeev Bhatia and on the other hand Abhijeet Narendra, a Joint Secretary of the same Ministry and Government Nominee Director on SAIL Board concurs during the board meeting dated Feb 11, 2025 to give Premature Retirement to the Whistle Blower on the basis of a major penalty given to him in Sep 2023 for the charge that the allegations levelled by the Whistle Blower in the above complaints are insinuations and lack evidence and are found to be imaginary, malicious, vexatious, and frivolous.

Levelling such charges against the Whistle Blowerthrough a chargesheet without any inquiry or investigation in the corruption complaints lodged by him is in itself illegal, unlawful, malicious, and revengeful. As per established laws, such charges can only be framed on the recommendations of the agency entrusted with the investigations.

On July 28,2023, CBI inquiry was merely a recommendation of the Ministry but when  Narendra was concurring on Feb 11, 2025 to give Premature Retirement to the Whistle Blower, the CBI investigation had become a reality. LOKPAL had already ordered CBI inquiry on Jan 10, 2024 and CBI had registered FIR No.RC2182024A0021 on Oct 10, 2024 in the matter of Venkatesh Infra Projects P Ltd.

Even though his Ministry’s recommendation had seen light of the day, but still Narendraconcurred during the board meeting dated Feb 11, 2025 to give Premature Retirement to the Whistle Blower on the basis of a major penalty given to him in Sep 2023 for the charge that the allegations levelledby the Whistle Blower in the above complaints are insinuations and lack evidence and are found to be imaginary, malicious, vexatious, and frivolous.

Narendra was on SAIL Board, uninterrupted but Ministry gets new Minister in June 2024 and new Secretary in Aug 2024

Narendra was appointed on SAIL Board as Government Director on Apr 28, 2022. Whistle Blower sent the corruption complaints to Soma Mondal and V S Chakravarty, the then Chairman and Director (Commercial) of SAIL on November 17, 2022. Both buried the complaints under the carpet and suspended the Whistle Blower on Nov 24, 2022without providing any reason whatsoever.Subsequently arbitrary charges were framed against the Whistle Blower to take revenge. The main charge levelled against him was that the allegations levelled in the complaints are insinuations and lack evidence and are found to be imaginary, malicious, vexatious, and frivolous.

When his complaints were buried by Soma Mondal and V S Chakravarty,  Bhatia lodged the complaint with LOKPAL of India in February 2023. In between, three times Bhatia sent the same complaint to the PMO. From the PMO,  the complaint came to Soma Mondal through the Ministry of Steel but she buried them also on all the three occasions.LOKPAL ordered CBI inquiry on Jan 10, 2024 and the Ministry suspended 29 officers. CBI had registered the first FIR No.RC2182024A0021 on Oct 10, 2024.

In addition, a complaint was lodged by the Whistle Blower on May 01, 2023 under Vigil Mechanism regarding his victimization and harassment for exposing corruption of about Rs 400 Crores,which as per the policy was to be disposed of within six months i.e. latest by Oct 31,2023, is still pending. If the complaint is found to be lacking sufficient grounds, the investigator mayrecommend closure of the case and filing of theComplaint. Even closure has not been informed to the Whistle Blower till date which duly confirms that the complaint was substantive and has been deliberately kept pending for perverse reasons.

Vigil Mechanism and AuditCommittee is governed by Sections 177(9) and 177(10) of the Companies Act, 2013; SEBI’s amended Clause 49 and 49(F) of the Listing Agreement w.e.f. 1st Oct 1, 2014 and O.M. dated 14.05.2010 on Corporate Governance for Central Public Sector Enterprises issued by the Department of Public Enterprises.

It has been gathered that during the concerned period, Sagi Kasi Viswanatha Raju and Ashok Kumar Tripathi were members of the AuditCommitteeas Independent Directors with Raju as Chairperson. M B Balakrishan, Company Secretary is the secretary of the Audit Committee, Audit Committee.

A quarterly report with number of complaints received under the Mechanism and their outcome shall be placed before the Audit Committee and the Board.Given the timelines, before giving Premature Retirement to  Whistle Blower, at least 7 times the complaint of the Whistle Blower must be placed before Narendra during the Board Meetings.

Narendra was continuously on SAIL Board as Government Director from the day of exposing corruption till the date of giving Premature Retirement to the Whistle Blower and hence was fully aware of all the intervening developments.

Although, in both the complaints CBI inquiry was ordered by LOKPAL as early as Jan 10, 2024, but CBI could register the FIRs on Oct 10, 2024 and July 25, 2025 respectively. Had  Soma Mondal and Mahesh Chand Agarwal not challenged the LOKPAL’s order in the Delhi High Court, FIRs could have been registered by CBI immediately after Jan 10, 2024. After intervention of LOKPAL vide its order dated July 07, 2025 followed by interaction with Director CBI on July 15, 2025, CBI registered FIR No.RC2182025A0015 in the matter of Avon Steel Industries P Ltdon July 25, 2025. Who knows knocking doors of the Delhi High Court was a well thought strategy to delay the investigation process.

Whether Narendra snatched the livelihood of the Whistle Blower under coercion or for some favours or otherwise, the same needs deep investigation by an independent agency.

In Olga Tellis v. Bombay Municipal Corporation, popularly known as the “Pavement Dwellers Case” a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court of India ruled that the word “life” in Article 21 includes the right to livelihood also. The court said: “It does not mean merely that life cannot be extinguished or taken away as, for example, by the imposition and execution of death sentence, except according to procedure established by law. That is but one aspect if the right to life. An equally important facet of the right to life is the right to livelihood because no person can live without the means of livelihood.”

The court further opined: “if the right to livelihood is not treated as a part and parcel of the constitutional right to life, the easiest way of depriving a person of his right to life would be to deprive him of his means of livelihood to the point of abrogation …the state may not by affirmative action, be compelled to provide adequate means of livelihood or work to the citizens. But, any person who is deprived of his right to livelihood except according to just and fair procedure established by law can challenge the deprivation as offending the right to life conferred in Article 21.”

The same has been recently emphasised by Rajasthan High Court in the S.B. Civil Writ Petition No. 2003/2024 :Sunil Dattatrey S/o Shri G.P. Dattatrey Ram vs The State of Rajasthan, through its Secretary, Panchayati Raj Department, Rajasthan and others.

https://bombaychamber.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/2052000200320245-586835.pdf

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 on the link given below:

https://www.dpe.gov.in/static/uploads/2025/07/09c5c1ab48cc8909db8313265988b04b.pdf

This is the first story on the series which we have started on role of Abhijeet Narendra and other officers of Ministry of Steel in the corruption in SAIL and blatant abuse of Fundamental Rule (FR) 56(j) of the CCS (Pension) Rules to prematurely retire an honest and intelligent Whistle Blower who had an excellent service record. In our next story, we will bring before you as to how Narendra grossly failed to comply with the above office memo. From the facts which will be exposed, it would be amply clear that non-compliance was entirely intentional, deliberate and calculated.

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