National

The Would-be Dhirubhai

Jain had ambitions of being India's biggest industrialist

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The Would-be Dhirubhai
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S.K. Jain had a dream. "I had a desire to become the biggest industrialist of India and to grow on the lines of Dhirubhai Ambani of Reliance," ran Jain's statement as recorded by the CBI. To further his ambition, he added, he was using the Ambani formula of cultivating politicians and bureaucrats "by paying them money".

And he did more than hobnob with politicians. Rajesh Pilot was a "good friend" who was paid Rs 10 lakh before the 1991 polls. A.R. Antulay received an equal amount and Ajit Panja was sent money through Madan Walia, a friend of Jain. Not to mention Prime Minister Narasimha Rao and the late Rajiv Gandhi who Jain claims to have paid off as well.

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Claiming to have met BJP chief L. K. Advani twice and paid him Rs 60 lakh, Jain told the CBI: "He (Advani) had visited our house at 14, Link Road for dinner with two or three more persons including the BJP treasurer and I paid this amount to him for political expenses." This was concealed by Vajpayee when he released some portions of Jain's statement pertaining to payoffs to Rao.

Transnationals, particularly in the power sector, wanted Jain to lobby for them. He, in turn, would demand commission and sub-contracts for his company, BECO. The French company GCE Alsthom's vice-president Revvillon met Jain to expedite the Kawas project file who obliged, courtesy Arif Mohammed Khan. In his statement, he says: "I had, there-upon, requested Mr Khan, power minister, to expedite the clearance of the said contract file." Jain asked Revvillon for Rs 10 crore. He also details the role of Quattrocchi as the middleman between Rajiv Gandhi and Cegelec of France and Scanska of Sweden. Outlook brought to light this connection in its last issue (January 31).

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Jain, however, did not always pay in cash. V. Krishnamurthy of the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation was not only paid Rs 90 lakh in five instalments for awarding the contract to modernise the Durgapur Steel Plant to the Tyaza Permo Export company of Russia but was gifted objets d' art of expensive Belgian glass.

Delhi Chief Minister M.L. Khurana was paid Rs 3 lakh by Jain's elder brother N.K. Jain. Another BJP leader, Yashwant Sinha, received Rs 21 lakh. Said Jain: "I had paid Rs 20 lakh to him in instalments, including Rs 15 lakh which I paid to him at Patna for election expenses." The statement also contains details of the payments made to V.C. Shukla, Madhavrao Scindia and Balram Jakhar. Shukla, who allegedly received Rs 90,85,834, has been identified by Jain as "a family friend" for a "long time". At times J.K. Jain made the payments.

Jakhar was allegedly paid Rs 81,24,800. "On one occasion," says Jain, "I and J.K. Jain had gone jointly to his residence at North Avenue. On two occasions, $5000 each were given to him by J.K. Jain." Scindia received Rs 1 crore—"paid by me and J.K. Jain at his residence in several instalments....Both of us are known to him," Jain confessed. Others about whom S.K. Jain has made similar revelations are Jaffer Sharief, Kamal Nath, Buta Singh, Ajit Panja, R. K. Dhawan, Pranab Mukherjee, A. R. Antulay and Krishna Kumar.

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