Scam, bam, thank you ma'am

With Anna Hazare in corruption clean-up mode and almost the entire nation rooting for him, MiD DAY takes a look at some of the biggest scams that have rocked free India

With Anna Hazare in corruption clean-up mode and almost the entire nation rooting for him, MiD DAY takes a look at some of the biggest scams that have rocked free India


Commonwealth Games
The news of liquid soap dispensers being rented for nearly Rs 10,000 each and toilet paper rolls being bought at a few thousands each for the Commonwealth Games brought shame to the nation last year and led the entire worldu00a0 to ask if India could host international games successfully.

The Games budget was overshot by more than Rs 1,000 crore and delays in the construction of venues and allegations of poor quality material being used led to a clamour for accountability.
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This led to former Commonwealth Games Organising Committee chief Suresh Kalmadi being arrested. He is cooling his heels in jail today.


Matchu00a0Fixing
Given that cricket is part of the national psyche, Indians felt hugely betrayed when the match-fixing scandal first broke out in 1997.

Manoj Prabhakar blew the whistle, making various allegations of match fixing and cricketers being bought for money.

Suddenly, the outcome of cricket matches involving India was doubted and cricketers and the betting mafia seemed linked.

Much has happened after that, and, though the ICC has made efforts to stop corruption in the game, it has lost a great deal of credibility since.

The then India captain, Mohammed Azharuddin, and batsman Ajay Jadeja, among others, were forced to retire from the game after the scandal.


Fodder
The 1996 Chara Ghotala allegedly cost the Bihar treasury nearly Rs 950 crore and involved the fabrication of 'vast herds of fictitious livestock' for which fodder, medicines and equipment were supposedly procured.
Special CBI courts have so far passed judgments in 32 cases related to the scam. RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav and former Bihar chief minister Jagannath Mishra have been named as accused in five cases.u00a0

Mining
Former Karnataka Lokayukta Santosh Hegde found the state's CM BS Yeddyurappa and four of his ministers guilty of being complicit in illegal mining that has caused a Rs 1,827-crore loss to the exchequer. Besides Yeddyurappa, the Reddy brothers, JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy and Congress MP Anil Lad have been named. Following the Lokayukta's report, Yeddyurappa was forced to resign as chief minister last month.

Stampu00a0Paper
The name Abdul Karim Telgi was etched into the national consciousness when the Rs 32,000 crore stamp paper scam surfaced. He allegedly appointed 300 people as agents who sold fake stamp papers to bulk purchasers, including banks, insurance companies and share-broking firms. Telgi and his associates were sentenced to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment in 2006. Telgiu00a0 got an additional 13-year sentence later and was fined Rs 100 crore.


2G Spectrum
Far and away the biggest scam to have been unearthed in the country, the 2G spectrum scam pegged at an eye-popping Rs 1.76 lakh crore first surfaced in August, 2010.u00a0

The scam involved the issuance of 1,232 2G spectrum licences by the ruling Congress-led UPA alliance to 85 companies, including many new players with little or no experience in the telecom sector, at a price set in the year 2001.

Some allegations were that the under-pricing of the 2G spectrum by the Department of Telecommunications resulted in a heavy loss to the exchequer and that the spectrum allocation process was skewed in favour of select companies.
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Many big names, including former telecom minister A Raja and former Tamil Nadu CM Karnunanidhi's daughter, sitting MP Kanimozhi, are in jail for their alleged involvement in the scam.
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The arrest of many business bigwigs and allegations of this being just the tip of the iceberg have made this scam give fresh meaning to the saying: even grave divines submit to glittering gold; the best of consciences are bought and sold.


Bofors
The Bofors scandal, which rocked the country in the 1980s, had the then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and several othersu00a0 accused of receiving kickbacks in the purchase of Bofors guns.u00a0

The scandal directly led to the defeat of the Indian National Congress in the 1989 general elections, and names of powerful business houses were dragged into the scandal.

Ottavio Quattrocchi, an Italian businessman who allegedly acted as a middleman in the deals, had fled the country in 1993 to escape arrest.
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In 2004, the Delhi High Court cleared Rajiv Gandhi of involvement in the scandal and gave a clean chit to the Hinduja brothers.

On January 3, 2011, an Income Tax tribunal ruled that, in violation of Indian laws, a commission was indeed paid to Quattrochi in the arms deal that cost the national exchequer nearly Rs 41.24 crore.


Adarsh
Another scam that led to the year 2010 being billed the Year of Scams was the Adarsh Co-operative Housing Society scandal. While a cynical populace had become used to the names of politicians figuring in controversial deals, the fact that people from the army had been named was something even they found difficult to digest.

The building was supposed to be reserved for widows and veterans of the Kargil War but the heroes stood tarnished. One former armyman told this paper, "After Adarsh, I am not the soldier I was."

Various allegations were made about the violations of rules in the building's construction and apartments in the building being allocated to bureaucrats, politicians and armymen raised many eyebrows.

The high-rise became a symbol of corruption endemic to our society and led to theu00a0 resignation of the then CM, Ashok Chavan. Inquiries and probes are on but the CM's ouster has been the case's biggest fallout so far.


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