The Centre’s inaction so far on a bribery scandal in spite of an admission by a Swedish bus maker of “misconduct” in India has brought into the spotlight the purported proximity between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and an Indian firm.
The Congress on Friday formally said the Prime Minister should clear the air on his links with Siddhi Vinayak Logistics Ltd, a key Indian client and ally of Swedish bus and truck maker Scania that belongs to the Volkswagen stable.
Earlier this week, Swedish news channel SVT and two other media outlets had reported after an investigation that Scania had paid bribes to win bus contracts in India in seven states between 2013 and 2016.
A Scania spokesperson had revealed that an investigation started by the company in 2017 had shown serious shortcomings by employees, including senior management. “This misconduct included alleged bribery, bribery through business partners and misrepresentation,” the spokesperson told Reuters.
Some media reports have suggested a possible link to Union surface transport minister Nitin Gadkari. The minister’s office has denied the charge but the Centre has not ordered any probe despite Scania admitting what it described as “misconduct”.
So far, the name of the Gujarat-based Siddhi Vinayak Logistics, which had placed a large order for buses with Scania in 2013, has not been mentioned in connection with the bribery scandal. But Siddhi Vinayak Logistics has been probed by the CBI in connection with bank loans.
“The Prime Minister should come clean on his links with Siddhi Vinayak Logistics,” Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera said on Friday.
“SVVL (Siddhi Vinayak Logistics Ltd) is run by a Surat-based businessman, Rup Chand Baid. This company supplied the customised luxury buses for Modi’s seven-star campaign in 2014,” Khera told a news conference.
“SVLL announced a partnership with Scania in 2014. This year was significant for SVLL — it saw Narendra Modi becoming Prime Minister and the company’s worth grew with an annual turnover of Rs 1,500 crore, an annual growth of 80 per cent.”
Khera said that when the Bank of Maharashtra asked SVLL to repay its loan in 2014, Baid wrote to the assistant general manager of the bank’s Deccan Gymkhana Branch in Pune, saying: “The undersigned was busy with preparation of very specialised vehicles for 3D campaigning by Honourable Shri Narendrabhai Modi & his team. It took about two months (February & March). During this period, I couldn’t attend business work.”
Neither the Centre nor the promoters of Siddhi Vinayak Logistics had responded to the allegations levelled by the Congress till Friday night. This newspaper will publish their versions when they are issued.
Khera said: “In a February 2015 report, it was highlighted that SVLL was the Bank of Maharashtra’s largest defaulter. Despite being a defaulter, the fact that the company had friends at the highest echelons of power meant that neither were the loan accounts tagged as NPAs nor were they classified as wilful defaulters.
“Yet again, in a letter dated September 16, 2014, Baid showed his proximity with the Prime Minister by forwarding the copy of a letter his company had received from Modi congratulating his company on the observance of ‘Drivers Day’. The company’s website also used to have a photograph of Baid and Modi, which has been taken down as the company was served a liquidation notice on November 19, 2018.”
Khera said that SVLL had started a “Chalak se malak” scheme in 2012 under which it sold used trucks to drivers. The Bank of Maharashtra provided loans for this scheme. The bank had a direct exposure of Rs 259 crore to SVLL in addition to an indirect exposure in the form of “small road transport operator finances” of Rs 645 crore.
Pre-empting the BJP’s stand that the loan was sanctioned in 2012 before Modi became Prime Minister, Khera said: “An internal probe by the Bank of Maharashtra made this observation, ‘The huge exposure taken by the zonal authorities (Ahmedabad and Surat branches) were without express consent by head office, violating its own credit policy about the exposure to the group defined under credit policy approved by the board. In fact, the finance(s) were made without considering the basic principles of lending, flouting RBI guidelines and credit policy of the bank.’ Also, in 2012, SVLL was not a defaulter and there was no scam.”
Khera said the key player in the disbursement of these loans was a general manager of the Bank of Maharashtra. He said the bank official had been suspended for a while before being reinstated because of his links with the RSS. The official is now retired.
