Satya Pal Malik Summoned By CBI In Reliance Insurance Case

Days after giving an explosive interview to Karan Thapar for The Wire, former governor of Jammu and Kashmir Satya Pal Malik has been summoned by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) about the Reliance Insurance proposal which he had shot down, according to a report by The Wire.

The questioning will be on the Reliance Insurance issue which was a scheme that RSS and BJP leader Ram Madhav allegedly pushed Malik to pass while he was the governor of Jammu and Kashmir, according to The Wire report.

"They want certain clarifications for which they want my presence. I am going to Rajasthan so I have given them dates from April 27 to 29 when I am available," Malik said.

In the interview to Thapar, Malik had spoken of this deal and said that the RSS and BJP leader Ram Madhav paid the then Jammu and Kashmir governor a special visit to try and get him to pass the scheme proposed by Reliance Insurance but the latter cancelled it.

"I had initially passed this scheme but a lot of people asked me to take it back. The first thing that happened was that government employees were really unhappy with the coming of the scheme. That is because all government employees had to pay Rs 8,500 a year for the scheme. Retired officers had to give more than Rs 20,000," he said in the interview, according to the transcript.

In April last year, the CBI lodged two FIRs over corruption allegations levelled by Malik in the awarding of contracts for a group medical insurance scheme for government employees and civil work worth Rs 2,200 crore related to the Kiru hydroelectric power project in Jammu and Kashmir.  

Malik had claimed that he was offered a Rs 300-crore bribe for clearing two files during his tenure as the Jammu and Kashmir governor between August 23, 2018 and October 30, 2019.

Details in the FIR

The investigating agency has booked Reliance General Insurance and Trinity Re-Insurance Brokers Limited as accused in its FIR related to a controversial health insurance scheme for Jammu and Kashmir government employees reportedly cleared by Malik at a state administrative council meeting held on August 31, 2018. The scheme was scrapped subsequently.

"... unknown officials of the finance department of the government of Jammu and Kashmir, by abusing their official positions in a conspiracy and connivance with Trinity Reinsurance Brokers Limited, Reliance General Insurance Company Limited and other unknown public servants and private persons, have committed the offences of criminal conspiracy and criminal misconduct," one of the FIRs alleges.

They caused "pecuniary advantage to themselves and wrongful loss to the state exchequer during the period 2017 and 2018 and thereby, in this manner, cheated the government of Jammu and Kashmir", it further alleges.

In the second FIR pertaining to alleged malpractices in the awarding of contracts for the civil work package of the Kiru hydroelectric power project, the CBI has alleged that the guidelines related to e-tendering were not followed.

"The case was registered on allegations of malpractices in the award of the contract worth Rs 2,200 crore (approximately) of civil works of the Kiru Hydro Electric Power Project (HEP) to a private company in the year 2019," it has said.

Senior Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Navin Kumar Chaudhary, former chairman of Chenab Valley Power Projects (Private) Limited, M S Babu, former managing director, M K Mittal and Arun Kumar Mishra, former directors, and Patel Engineering Limited have been booked in the case. 

"Though a decision was taken in the 47th board meeting of CVPPL (Chenab Valley Power Projects Limited) for re-tender through e-tendering with the reverse auction after the cancellation of the ongoing tendering process, the same was not implemented (as per the decision taken in the 48th board meeting) and the tender was finally awarded to Patel Engineering Limited," the FIR alleges. 

Satya Pal Malik served as the Jammu and Kashmir governor at the time of the abrogation of Article 370, before the erstwhile militarized state was divided and reduced to the status of a Union territory. He had dissolved the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly and was the serving governor during the Pulwama terrorist attack of February 2019.

(With inputs from PTI)