New Indian-Chennai News + more

Natarajan suppressed Tatra deal clause to favour Rishi 

Josy Joseph TNN 

New Delhi: Suspended BEML chairman VRS Natarajan allegedly suppressed the original commitment for indigenization of Tatra trucks to favour Ravi Rishi and companies controlled by him in Slovakia,the CBI has told the ministry of defence.This would be the primary charge on which CBI would be carrying out criminal investigation against Natarajan.
In its communication seeking sanction to begin criminal investigation against Natarajan,CBI has said the commitment of the original 1986 contract was to achieve 86% indigenization by 1991.
However,Natarajan suppressed this fact and signed a fresh contract with Tatra Sipox UK of Ravi Rishi in 2003.In this contract,he specifically exempted indigenization of axles and backbone tube,i.e.chasis parts,terming them as special components that cannot be indigenized.The CBI has said that these parts are manufactured in the Slovakian arm of Tatra that is fully controlled by Rishi.Natarajan thus ensured that BEML would continue to import these crucial parts in perpetuity.
It is not clear if the 86% indigenization commitment was also there in the 1997 agreement signed between BEML and Tatra Sipox UK,which is fully owned by Rishi.Though the 1997 agreement was for 10 years,it was revised in 2003.The CBI has pointed out that the 2003 contract with Tatra Sipox was signed after Natarajan was appointed the chairman-cum-managing director of Bharat Earth Movers Limited.Sources said the agency has accused him of suppressing the indigenization commitments,and giving special relaxation to favour Rishi and businesses controlled by him.
The findings could be the trigger for CBI to seek further proof to establish that there was a criminal conspiracy involving all those individuals involved in negotiating the 2003 contract to avoid Tatra indigenization and thus cause huge financial and technical losses to the government.The agency could now be looking at money trail,including properties,benami companies etc of BEML top brass and decisions taken by Rishi and others over the years.
Besides this crucial finding,CBI also found that Natarajan tried to mislead the investigators during their interaction with them.Also,the BEML chief was influencing witnesses,mostly employees and ex-employees of BEML,who CBI was summoning for questioning.
But what would mark the key turning point against Natarajan is CBIs finding that he suppressed the indigenization commitment of Tatra and showered special favours to Rishi and Slovakian arm of the Tatra company.This would be the first allegation against Natarajan on which CBI would formally begin criminal investigation against him,armed with the ministry of defence sanction given on Monday to move forward in that direction.