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"Kesri Is An Old Friend Of The Family"

For a man dogged by controversy and FERA cases (for allegedly diverting $150,000 abroad for the purchase of a company, Turner Morrison, and illegally opening an account for Congress president Sitaram Kesri at Barclays Bank, London), Ashok Jain is rem

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"Kesri Is An Old Friend Of The Family"
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Your former business partner N.S. Hoon has alleged that while attempting to purchase Turner Morrison, you transferred $150,000 from Handlesbank to his account in Bank Rothschild A.G. Zurich.

Hoon's allegations are entirely false and he has made so many allegations which are part of the court records in Calcutta. These court proceedings have been going on for 10-15 years and every time the court has held that these allegations are not true. If you read his affidavits, you will be surprised to see that he contradicts himself in the next affidavit.

You mean Hoon is carrying on a personal vendetta against you?

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Yes, certainly. Why he is doing this surprises me. He is a very odd person, not the kind you can describe in words. All his actions show this. He has filed umpteen criminal cases against me in the Calcutta High Court and almost all of them have been dismissed. Allegations have been found to be false. His tactic is that after one case gets dismissed, he files a fresh one by slightly changing the affidavit.

But it is true that he was your business partner.

No, never a partner or an agent. He was an employee of one of our companies some 40 years back and that too just for seven-eight months.

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What about the FERA case? You can't say that the ED too has a personal vendetta against you?

I can make some guesswork. It is Hoon's habit to go to each new person who takes over in the directorate. He mixes some truths with falsehoods, so that the other party at least believes his version. It has happened twice in the past, in Calcutta and in Delhi. We talked to the ED people and told them that we are prepared to clarify, produce the court records but please don't go on what he says. We told them that the matter is subjudice. Somehow it appears to me that he was able to persuade or mislead the department this time. Who exactly he misled, I can't say.

Even if the matter is sub-judice in Calcutta, that is a civil dispute and does not prevent the ED from relying on the court proceedings as "source information"?

How can you act on a court order which is not really an order since there was a dissenting judgement? Furthermore, it was not an issue decided, it was an interlocutory application in which legal points are decided and there are no directions to agencies.

That's a technicality. But you still seem to believe that the Directorate is harassing you?

Of course. There's no doubt about that.

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Why?

I think the main reason is that when they were misled by Hoon and when they found nothing at my house, they had to justify themselves. And till now, nobody has dared to take on the ED; I challenged their action. I said that the search on my house on January 4 had no basis in law. Now, this must have greatly upset them, angered them.

If you had nothing to fear, why did you dodge 13 summons they served on you?

(Laughs) It is part of the court records. Our affidavit in court deals with all this in detail. Whatever they are trying to say is all wrong. Every time they have served summons on me, it has been properly attended to, replied to. The only thing we asked for was that my interrogation should take place in a hospital. We never said that we are not prepared to come. I returned to Mumbai in end-April. I came to Delhi in mid-June. I was there for nearly two months. I told them you come and interrogate me. They just wouldn't do it.

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Do you think they want to arrest you?

It could be. I don't know. I can't say.

The ED is also investigating some other foreign accounts which allegedly belong to you.

I have no accounts abroad. All allegations about my maintaining accounts abroad is totally false. Except Hoon's allegations, the ED has no other basis for making such assumptions.

The ED is investigating two companies—RASA International and RASAM International—allegedly opened by you in Leichenstein.

I have nothing to do with such companies.

It is also alleged that you had an account in the name of Rohtas Zug in the Swiss canton of Zug, which after being closed on RBI orders was subsequently transferred to another tax haven?

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I don't recollect the details. In fact, I don't even remember whether there was a company called Rohtas Zug. But there was a case in 1958 against my father. The department imposed a heavy fine, which was later struck down by the appellate court. All the matters that you are talking about are very old and have been decided.

Do you think this is a political case? Is the Directorate acting at somebody's behest?

They have such enormous powers which are completely draconian in nature. They don't have to explain anything to anybody. But I really can't say if they are acting at anybody's behest.

But isn't it true that you are close to the powers-that-be. Sitaram Kesri...

So should I assume that they are acting at his behest? (Laughs.)

But the ED's hands have been tied on specific instances and this is said to be because of your closeness to certain politicians.

In what way are their hands tied? I am available for interrogation whenever they want.

They have been put under surveillance by the Intelligence Bureau.

That's a matter within the government. I don't know anything about this and I have no hand in it.

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How close are you to Kesri?

He's an old friend of the family. My parents were very helpful to him early in his political career. Subsequently, he rose on the political ladder completely on his own. My father died about 20 years back and Kesri has been a treasurer of the Congress party under three-four prime ministers. I can't remember having played any role in helping him rise in politics in the last 20 years. It was entirely on his own. He is not indebted to us in any manner for that. On the other hand, in the last 20 years, I can't recollect a single instance where Kesri has helped us.

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But it is true that you did employ his son in your company S.K.G. Sugars in Patna?

His son was employed, yes, till 1991. But employing someone is not helping somebody. Because by that yardstick, I have employed so many people. And if that is construed to mean that I am helping their families, then I don't know. The last salary he was getting was Rs 2,500 per month. What is Rs 2,500?

You are closely related to Prime Minister I.K. Gujral.

The family connection is well-known, I don't have to say that. But that does not mean that I am close to him. Since he became a minister or fought elections from Patna and Punjab, I have had no hand in any of his activities.

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But isn't it true that you sought political intervention through your resident editor, M.D. Nalapat, in getting ED permission to travel abroad soon after the January 4 raid?

After the search was completed around 10.15 pm on January 4, I told those people clearly that I had an appointment with my doctors abroad and had to travel. I told the person in charge, Ashok Aggarwal, that if you don't want me to go, please tell me now. He went down and came back after about 10 minutes (so I assumed that he had made a phone call to his boss) and said that the raid was complete, that I could sign on the panchnama and was then free to go wherever I wanted. This was his reply to a specific question that I had put to him. Thereafter, at the airport, they tried to stop me. One can only assume that they had pre-planned to somehow arrest me, take me to the ED office. That is the only assumption I can make.

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But you did contact the then PM, H.D. Deve Gowda?

Yes, certainly. When that happened, Nalapat was con tacted, I understand that phoned the prime minister, who then asked the revenue secretary to allow me to go The raid was complete and, had I not gone for my med ical appointment, I don't know what would have hap pened. I only know that Deve Gowda's instance, I was allowed to go. Otherwise, they had bad intentions.

What exactly is your medical problem?

It is not too pleasant to talk about one's own health. I think my medical records will answer the question about the state of my health.

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Your name has come up in the CBI probe on C.R. Bhansali.

Is this something to do with the FERA matter? Bhansali is a Jain and is a very close disciple of Acharya Tulsi. I know him through that connection. He was very active in Jain society and social affairs. He apparently rose very fast and we felt happy about the rise of a fellow Jain. I gave him some loan and though the loan was fully repaid, some investments that he made have not been repaid. I don't remember the exact amount.

How do you think the media has reacted to the whole controversy?

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The campaign has been by only one newspaper, The Statesman. That is the only paper which appeared to have a single-point programme. They had nothing to talk about perhaps, except Ashok Jain.

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