Tale of two babus

In his complaint, the officer had alleged that his senior officers including then Chief Commissioner of the Central Excise Department, SKS Somwanshi (Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh) incurred a revenue loss of Rs 600 crore by giving undue favours to a Madhya <g data-gr-id="18">Pradesh based</g> Gutka (pouch tobacco) company.  

According to the complaint lodged with CBI, reports from Bhopal said the tobacco company <g data-gr-id="22">Kaipan</g> had planned to install <g data-gr-id="28">high speed</g> Gutkha pouch packing machines to evade the central excise duty. 

These high speed machines were purchased from Uflex industries, NOIDA, whose chairman Ashok Chaturvedi had earlier been arrested by the CBI under Prevention of Corruption Act for bribing the then Chief Commissioner of Central Excise Delhi zone on the allegations of helping the tobacco and pan masala companies in tax evasion.

In 2001, Chaturvedi was arrested by the CBI under the Prevention of Corruption Act for allegedly bribing a top Excise Department official. Former Cabinet Secretary, Prabhat Kumar was forced to resign as Jharkhand Governor after reports of Chaturvedi having paid for his private parties surfaced through the media.

According to reports from Bhopal, the new <g data-gr-id="21">high speed</g> gutkha machines purchased from Uflex cost Rs 90,00,000 each whereas the earlier machines operational at <g data-gr-id="17">Kaipan</g> cost only Rs 60,000 each. 

“Since these new machines cost more than 150 times the old machines, proper verification of the machines was necessary,” said a source in Central Excise Department, however, the concerned officer was not allowed to carry out the inspection.

“I as a revenue officer committed to my duties was authorised to make any decision on the matter after due examination, diligent and appropriate precautionary steps to protect the Government revenue in accordance with the Pan Masala Rules 2008. But on the contrary, the then Chief Commissioner SKS Somvanshi was pressuring me to act in favour of Gutkha lobby and install these <g data-gr-id="24">high speed</g> machines without proper examination and due diligence. 

“That Somvanshi was hand in glove with the gutkha manufacturers is also clearly evident from the copy of his call details during the period of purchase and installation of these highly sophisticated high speed machines,” <g data-gr-id="31">Srawan</g> Kumar Bansal, the whistle-blowing IRS officer is reported to have said in his complaint.

The officer had alleged that his senior officers including then Chief Commissioner of the Central Excise Department, SKS Somwanshi incurred a revenue loss of Rs 600 crore by giving undue favours to a Madhya <g data-gr-id="69">Pradesh based</g> Gutka company.