Corruption, Scandals and Scams lists since 1947 (After Independence): Part I (1947 - 1999)

Corruption is an issue which is constantly holding our country's development back. Transperency International which is a organization recognised internationally ranks coutries based on corruption in the country. In the year 2016, India was ranked 79th out of 168 countries. Although from 2014, the courntry has improved in ranking index from 36 - 40, still we need to go a long way and make it towards 90-100. Current index of 40 terms India as mostly corrupt country.

Constantly over a period of time we have witnessed cases of corruption by our politicians amounting to crores of rupees which should have been put into development of coutry and upliftment of poor and underpriviledged. Instead most of the money went towards the development of politicians, their family and political parties. Some got converted to foreign currencies and are lying with foreign banks. Swiss banks being the ideal choices for most of the politicians.

Since the list is so big, I'm breaking it into 3 parts. This is the first part, future post will be soon compiled and posted. I will also share the link in this post. Finally at the end of the series total amount of all these scams will be revealed which definitely will put everyone of you reading this page in state of shock.

Let us briefly look at the some of the most corrupted scandals which shook our nation.

1947

Jeep Scandal case - It was the first major corruption case in India. It's believed that the scam was valued at 80 Lakh, this amount was very huge for that time when many people were using 1paise coins. Just imagine the worth in today's world.

1951

The Mundhra Scandal - The Mundhra scandal exposed the relation of corrupt politicians and big industrialist where the illegal money was pumped into corporates. This scam is valued to be 1.2 crores ruppes.

1956

BHU Funds misappropriation - Benaras Hindu University scandal was of 50 lakh rupees and is one of the first instances of corruption in educational institutions during that time.

1960

Teja loan scandal - Jayanti Dharma Teja, better known as Dr Teja with his close connection with then Prime Minsiter Jawaharlal Nehru established National Shipping Empire called as Jayanti Shipping Company with Government's backing and estimated fraud was Rs 22 crores.

1964

Pratap Singh Kairon scam - Pratap Singh Kairon, the then Chief Minister of Punjab was convicted by Dass commission for allowing his family members to amass unaccounted money in agricultural and farming machinery trades during Green Revolution.

1965

Kaling tubes scandal - Orissa chief minister Biju Patnaik had to quit as CM following allegations that he had favoured Kalinga Tubes, a company owned by him, in awarding a government contract.

1971

Nagarwala scandal - On May 24, 1971, INR 60 lakh was withdrawn from the State Bank of India, given to Rustom Sohrab Nagarwala after the chief cashier Ved Prakash Malhotra, got a call purportedly from Indira Gandhi then Prime Minister of India asking him to do so. However Indira Gandhi and PMO denied any such involvement. Even after enquiry commission proved the relationship between Nagarwala and Gandhi, Malhotra was convicted.

1974

Maruti Scandal - In June, A company called ‘Maruti limited’ was incorporated under the Companies Act and Sanjay Gandhi became its first managing director when Indira Gandhi was Prime Minsiter and favoured Sanjay with license to manufacture passenger car.

1976

Kuo oil scandal - Indian Oil company had signed a deal with non-existent company in Hong Kong worth Rs.2.2 crores with the help of petroleum minister.

1981

Cement Scam - A.R. Antulay, the then chief Minister of Maharashtra had garnered Rs.30 crore from state owned cement business and diverted to his private trust.

1987 

Bofors Scandal - The Swedish arms manfacturing company has paid Rs 64 crores to top Indian politicians and key defence officials including the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi to ensure the deal to buy its arms for Indian Army.

1989

St Kitts Forgery - Chandraswami, Mamaji and former External Affairs Minister K K Tewari laid a plot and were convicted for criminal conspiracy to tarnish V P Singh's reputation for a scam worth of Rs.65 crores 

1990

Airbus Scandal -  Airbus had bribed highly placed public servants and others to induce Indian Airlines (IA) to order its aircraft. The CBI filed FIR charging senior officials of Civil aviation Ministry and IA with corruption in hasty negotiation to purchases amounting to Rs.2,500 crore

1992

Indian Bank Scandal - A multi-crore scam was exposed in 1992, when then chairman M. Gopalakrishnan lent Rs.1,300 crore to small corporates and exporters from the south, which the borrowers never repaid.

Palmolein Oil Import Scam - Kerala government and "Power and Energy Ltd", a Malaysian company in Singapore decided to get into deal to trade palm oil at higher price which was approved by the Kerala Cabinet. The price of import was fixed to $405.0 per ton which was higher than the international price of $392.25 per ton for importing 15,000 tonne oil. 

Harshad Mehta Scam - Harshad Mehta cleverly used policies and restrictions laid by Government of India and found loopoles facilitating the Banks to invest their money in equity at inflated stock prices. Total worth of the scam is believed to be Rs.5,000 crores.

1994

Sugar Import Scam - Artificial sugar scarcity was created to import sugar at a higher prices by then food minister Kalpnath Rai when already 70 lakh tonnes of sugar were in stock. Inflated price led to total worth of Rs.4,200 crores of over priced stock. 

MS Shoe Scam - Pawan Sachdeva, the promoter of MS Shoes, allegedly used company funds to buy shares of his own company and rig prices, prior to a public issue. SEBI and SBI Caps, which lead and managed the issue duped the public into Rs. 699-crore fraud.

1995

Yugoslav Dinar Scam - Hawala money transaction were broken out by some officials of Vyasa and UCO bank for converting Rs.400 crores of rupees to Yugoslav Dinar. The amount was acquired by Yogesh Mehta and Dinesh Singh by way of compensatory payments against the import of electronic goods.

Preferential allotment scam - 29 MNCs and 9 Indian companies exercised the prefferential allotment of shares to their promoters at lower prices. Total unlawful gains made by the promoters by preferential allotment ran into more than Rs.5,000 crores.

Meghalaya forest scam - Hectares of forest land was cleared by the state government and forest officials for exploiting timber. Total worth of this scam is valued over Rs.300 crores.

1996

Fertilizer import scam - Rs.1,300 crores was exposed when Union Ministry for Chemicals and Fertilisers awarded the contract to supply fertilizers to Turkey based Karsan exporting company which it had earlier rejected saying the tender was overpriced. C.S. Ramakrishnan, MD, National Fertilizer and a group of businessmen fleeced the government from the import of two lakh tonne of urea, which was never delivered

C.R.Bhasali scam - Chain Roop Bhansali duped several small investors along with State Bank of India in his newly formed NBFC CRB Capital Markets which amounted to Rs.1,100 crore.

Sukh Ram telecom Scam - Sukh Ram then Union minister of communications was convicted for facilitating cheaper telecom equipments to Hyderabad based company. The deal value is not know but at the time of raid at his house, Rs.3.6 crore were recovered.

Fodder Scam - The famous Chara Ghotala scam as it was publicly called was the master mind of then chief minister Laloo Prasad Yadav along with animal husbandry department. The scam was worth Rs.950 crores.

1997

Sheregar Scam - Also called as Double your Money scheme was started by Ashok Sheregar who duped several insvestors and amassed wealth over Rs.18.5 crore.

Cobbler scam - Sohin Daya of Dawood Shoes, Rafique Tejani of Metro Shoes and Kishore Signapurkar of Milano Shoes & politicians created several fake co-operatives and siphoned around Rs.1,200 crores from a scheme that was floated by the Government of India meant to benefit the poor cobblers of Mumbai.

Jalgaon housing scam - The scam relates to construction of 11,000 low-cost houses in Jalgaon. Senior NCP leader Gulabrao Deokar has been summoned for his alleged involvement in this scam amounting to Rs.46 crore. 

Bihar Land Scam - Rs.400-crore land scandal. The illegal sale of government khas land and tribal land in towns such as Ranchi by a section of officials first came to the notice of the then Revenue Minister Inder Singh Namdhari, through an anonymous letter.

1998

Anubhav Teak Plantations Scam - Anubhav plantations was an Chennai based plantation company which sold shares in teak plantations on guaranteed interests. It was subsequently revealed to have scammed its depositors by defrauding them of nearly Rs. 400 crore through Ponzi schemes.

Note: Part I of the series end's here. Part II will be posted soon. Kindly comment below and share your views