Apart from taking revenge on the Whistle Blower, what was the key motive of the senior management of SAIL behind keeping him away from office?

On Nov 17, 2022 Whistle Blower Rajeev Bhatia sent three corruption complaints to Soma Mondal and V S Chakravarty, the then Chairman and Director (Commercial) of SAIL. One of the three complaints was on steel supplies to a FAKE Project - Venkatesh Infra Projects P Ltd on negotiated prices by giving heavy discounts using the policy guidelines and DoP applicable for genuine infrastructure and construction firms. The steel so supplied to the firm was sold in the open market for windfall gains, probably mutual.

Terrified by the fear of cessation of illegal money, both buried the complaints under the carpet and suspended the Whistle Blower on Nov 24, 2022 without providing any reason whatsoever.

Thereafter, disciplinary proceedings were initiated against the Whistle Blower by issuing chargesheets with ‘FAKE & ARBITRARY’ charges. Although given the type of charges, the inquiry proceedings could have been conducted without suspending the Whistle Blower but still he was kept away from office because of the grave motive of senior management to keep the sales to FAKE Projects continued.

This was also the time when the innings of few senior officers were coming to end. Chairman SAIL Soma Mondal and Executive Director (Sales & ITD)  Mahesh Chand Agarwal ; one head of SAIL and the other head of Sales, were due for superannuation on Apr 30, 2023 & July 31, 2023 respectively and therefore have left  only few months to garner resources.

The proof of the pudding is in the eating : Numbers speak for themselves

The data on sales to the FAKE Projects during the suspension period of the Whistle Blower is the clinching evidence which proves beyond any doubt that he was suspended with the sole purpose of keeping him away from the office so that the illicit and illegitimate sales at negotiated prices by illegally giving heavy discounts can be carried on away from the eyes of the watchman.

Two seniormost officials of CMO SAIL having common interests

Must read : SAIL-ED : Sanjay Agrawal : An undisciplined disciplinary authority 

https://www.bureaugram.com/news/sail-ed-sanjay-agrawal-an-undisciplined-disciplinary-authority

The Marketing vertical headed by Executive Director (Marketing) was created on Dec 15, 2018 in CMO-SAIL, following the recommendation of BCG who was engaged for the turnaround of SAIL by paying a hefty sum of over ₹ 84 Crores.

Apart from other responsibilities, Executive Director (Marketing) was made the overall custodian of the selling prices of the various products sold by the sales team. The idea was borrowed from other similar industries with a view that pricing must not be left with the sales team as they have the tendency of unnecessarily reducing the operating prices to achieve the monthly sales targets, thus suppressing the market prices resulting in perpetual reduction in prices. Executive Director (Marketing) and his team were placed to strike the balance between the targets assigned to the sales team and the operating prices.

The entire idea of striking the balance was negated by the SAIL management by posting two “samdhis” on the two posts.

It has been gathered that after a long-standing affair, daughter of Sanjay Agarwal tied the nuptial knot with son of Mahesh Chand Agarwal in the last week of Nov 2022. During the period of above supplies Sanjay was the Executive Director (Marketing) and Mahesh was the Executive Director (Sales & ITD) at CMO SAIL i.e. one was All-India head of Marketing vertical and the other was All-India head of sales vertical.

In the old Hindi movies, we  often see the bride’s father always standing in front of the groom’s father with hands folded. By posting Sanjay as Executive Director (Marketing), SAIL management deliberately made the most critical post of CMO completely redundant, giving full freedom to Mahesh to operate as per his wishes.

The above supply to the FAKE Projects must also be seen in the light that SAIL continued supplies even after getting the complaint on  a FAKE Project - Venkatesh Infra Projects P Ltd

Since buried by SAIL, on Dec 01, 2022; Jan 01, 2023 & Jan 11, 2023, the same complaints were also sent by Bhatia to the Prime Minister of India. On all three occasions, via the Ministry of Steel, the complaints reached Chairman SAIL Soma but they were also buried on all the three occasions.

Witnessing that his complaints would not see the light of the day with PMO, MoS and SAIL, Bhatia lodged the same complaints with LOKPAL of India on Feb 11, 2023. In between the complaints were sent by Bhatia to the Minister of Steel and CVC also.

Post retirement, Soma was rewarded by the Govt with the post of Member PESB and Agrawal went on to join as Director with OfBusiness [OFB Tech Private Limited] on Oct  4, 2023.

OFB Tech Private Limited, operating under the brand OfBusiness, is a leading tech-enabled B2B platform founded in 2015 that facilitates raw material procurement and financing. It specializes in trading industrial goods like steel, chemicals, polymers, etc.  It has been gathered that SAIL sold over 3,00,000 Tonne of various steel products including a large quantity of TMT Bars to 11 firms connected to OFB Tech Private Limited as FAKE Projects offering heavy discounts. Estimated loss to SAIL is over Rs 100 Crores

Must read :

Soma Mondal: Will she get another term as Member PESB?

https://www.bureaugram.com/news/soma-mondal-will-she-get-another-term-as-member-pesb

Nexus between OfBusiness and SAIL officials

https://www.bureaugram.com/news/nexus-between-ofbusiness-and-sail-officials

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