The government on Monday told Parliament that someNon-Resident Indians (NRIs) being probed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) inthe Rs 685 crore fertilizers import scam but declined to share their names asit "may impact" the ongoing probe.
Replying to a question from a Congress Lok Sabha memberGurjeet Singh Aujla, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary said thatthe ED is probing the money laundering scam involving IFFCO Managing DirectorU.S. Awasthi, based on the FIR registered by the Central Bureau ofInvestigation.
On the involvement of the NRIs and foreign companies in thecase, the minister said: "Some of the persons are NRIs. Disclosures of furtherdetails of the case may not be in the larger public interest as the same may impactthe ongoing investigation in the case."
In its FIR filed in May, the CBI has named Awasthi,Indian Potash Ltd Managing Director Pravinder Singh Gahlaut, Awasthi's sons andCatalyst Business Associates Pvt Ltd promoters Amol Awasthi and Anupam Awasthi,Gahlaut's son Vivek Gahlaut, Pankaj Jain of Jyoti Group of Companies and RareEarth Group, Dubai, and his brother and Jyoti Trading Corporation PresidentSanjay Jain, and Jyoti Trading Corporation's Senior Vice President AmrinderDhari Singh.
Besides them, it has also named chartered accountant andMidas Metal International LLC and other companies promoter Rajiv Saxena, PankajJain's employee Sushil Kumar Pachisia, and unknown directors of IFFCO andunknown others.
According to the CBI FIR, IFFCO and IPL were importinghuge quantities of fertilizers, running into several thousands of metric tons,along with raw materials for fertilizers from various foreign suppliers, forthe country's farmers and the government was providing subsidy on them tofacilitate supply to the farmers at reasonable rates.
However, it was alleged that in order to cheat the governmentby claiming higher subsidy, some IFFCO and IPL officials were importing the fertilizers and raw materials through Kisan International Trading FZE in Dubai,a subsidiary of IFFCO, and other middlemen, at highly inflated rates, coveringthe commission meant for the accused, including the MDs of IFFCO and IPL, whichwas paid or transferred by the overseas suppliers to the accused officialsthrough sham transactions involving the accused.
All these imports were done between 2013 and 2017, itsaid.
The ED has arrested Rashtriya Janata Dal Rajya Sabhamember A.D. Singh and Delhi-based CA Alok Kumar Agarwal in connection with thecase.