 Hello and welcome to NewsClick. Our Joint Director of Enforcement Directorate Rajeshwari Singh has raised various questions and has attacked Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhya saying, and I quote, that, has he developed a animosity against him by siding with scamsters and their affiliates? While the ED has come out in support of the Joint Director, the Finance Ministry has said these allegations are baseless. To discuss the issue we are joined by Paranjay Guhatakurtha. Welcome to NewsClick, Paranjay. Thank you, Paranjay. So as far as I can read the letter and see the newspaper reports, it looks like there are various angles to it. One, there's an angle of PG Thamburam and the air cell case. Then one, there's an angle of his promotion, a phone call from Dubai. There are also questions raised about national security. And mind, he's the same person who has probed important cases like 2G, Sahara and all those. So let's start one by one. He quotes in his letter, tauts, middlemen, fixers and pimps got unfettered access to the certain offices and departments in the corridors of power in the previous regime. I was one of the many officers who felt that this would stop at least after you took over as the Revenue Secretary. Shocking as it may appear, that was not the case. And he's also saying that he's aligning with scamsters and affiliates. So can you throw some light on this part of this entire letter that has been leaked? Paranjay, this episode is extremely rare and most unusual. That here we have a senior official of the enforcement directorate leveling extremely serious allegations against his boss. Now, they are not ordinary people. The enforcement directorate, which comes into the Department of Revenue and the Ministry of Finance, is responsible for enforcing FIMA, the Foreign Exchange Management Act, and the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. It has very strong punitive powers. It can arrest people. It can attach their assets, declare them as proceeds of crime. It has powers which are almost akin to the kind of powers, say the CBR, the Central Bureau of Investigation has. Now, here you have a joint director, Dr. Rajeshwar Singh, alleging that his boss, Dr. Hasmukh Adya, is hand in glove with all kinds of dubious characters. Now, this is truly amazing. Now, nothing official has come. Whereas the enforcement director, Karnal Singh, has solidly stood behind him. The Ministry of Finance has not responded. All we have are newspaper reports quoting unnamed sources in North Block saying this officer, Rajeshwar Singh, if he is actually completely, you know, said, let him face the, in fact, the Supreme Court on the 27th has said the Vacation Bench, mind you, the Supreme Court is not in session, the Vacation Bench comprising Arun Mishra, Justice Arun Mishra and Justice Sanjay Kishan call. It is hearing a public interest litigation. It has said, yes, the government should investigate his role and he has gone on leave. Now. And this petition was filed on 5th June 2018. Absolutely. While he was busy questioning Mr. Pichit Ambaram. Now, you must, let's go step by step because this is a very complex story and here I am going to give you some new insights and I'm going to some new idea, but let's first go over what is already known and what has been already published. You know, it's all over the papers at the front pages of newspapers. It's been discussed on prime time in television. Now, what is Dr. Rajeshwar Singh alleging? He's alleging that because he's doing his job diligently and among other cases, he's investigating the cases pertaining to the former Finance Minister, Mr. Pichit Ambaram and his son, Karti Chidambaram. Now, also besides various other cases including cases such as the 2G case, the Jagan Reddy case, the Madhukoda scam case, the Noida Ponzi case, he has over the years investigated a number of very, very sensitive cases. Now, the Air Cell Maxis case is a kind of an offshoot of the 2G case because it pertains to the Marans, Maran brothers and the manner in which Air Cell was acquired. Now, if you want to, I can hold forth on that, but we'll take it step by step. What Dr. Rajeshwar Singh is alleging is that these are old allegations that he has disproportional assets, that he has been cleared of these allegations in the past by the Supreme Court and therefore he's being targeted. He's also alleging that he's being denied a promotion. Now, and this is where I'm going to throw some new light onto you and I'll link it all. First, before I do that, let's look at the whole national security angle. Now, what is very unusual is here we have a formal press release. The Enforcement Director hardly ever puts out press releases. What happens? We have the Additional Solicitor General of India, Vikramjit Banerjee representing the Government of India. He tells the Supreme Court and submits some so-called sensitive information to the bench in a sealed envelope. In no time at all we see the Bharata Janta Party Member of Parliament, Dr. Subramaniam Swamy making allegations that this, what is this allegation? Now here I am giving you information which is not that easily known. In the so-called sealed cover, it has been alleged that there has been an intercept of a message by one Danish who is an Indian national but allegedly working for the Pakistanis, the ISI, the Inter-Services Intelligent and he was in conversation with the Joint Director V.D. Rajeshwar Singh. Now wait, it doesn't stop there. The Director Enforcement Directorate then sends a letter to the Secretary-Raw. The Secretary-Raw is Mr. Anil Dasmana. Now the Secretary-Raw gets this letter and it is thou said that somehow Dr. Rajeshwar Singh is going to compromise national security but the enforcement directorate stands by him and says that this is part of a larger investigation that the enforcement director was kept in the loop at every stage and the Secretary-Raw has raked up this controversy to delay the promotion of Dr. Rajeshwar Singh to the great of additional secretary of the enforcement directorate. Now let me suggest a few things and I am going to give you just the hint of what I am suggesting and tell you in greater detail information which is not. I interpret this entire unseemly episode as a consequence of a power struggle within the ruling establishment. What is that? The Bharti Janta Party, the Rashtriya Swayamse Vaksang and the Government of India. Now let's look at these two lobbies. There is one lobby which is Dr. Subramaniam Swamy, Rajeshwara Member of Parliament backed completely by Nagpur by the RSS top brass. Now he is also allegedly, again I am being careful when I say it, being tacitly supported by another group of people and this is within the Government. Who are they? One is the National Security Advisor, Mr. Ajit Doval. The principal secretary to the Prime Minister, Mr. Nipendra Mishra, the Director of the CBI who is going to be retiring soon, Mr. Alok Verma, the Enforcement Director, Karnell Singh and of course Rajeshwari Singh, the Joint Director of the ED. Now on the other side is very, very interesting. One is the Finance Minister, Mr. Jaitley who is out of action as you know following his kidney transplant. His work is being handled by Mr. Piyush Goyal and he is operating out of home. He is not incapacitated but he is not attending office and he is not going out. But together with him it is interesting and these are the lobbies is Mr. P.K. Mishra, Pramod Kumar Mishra. He is Additional Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister and with them is Dr. Hasmukh Adya, Revenue Secretary who was bypassed for the position of Cabinet Secretary and it is alleged that one of the reasons why he was bypassed and we can go into that in later detail. Interestingly, Mr. Rakesh Asthana who wants to succeed the CBI Director, Mr. Alok Director in his position. Now he is again a very, very controversial person and if you want to know more about him I'll tell you and with them are two other very, very powerful people. One is of course the head of the Research and Analysis Wing which comes under the Cabinet Secretariat and that is Mr. Anil Dhasmana and Rajiv Jain who is the Director of the Intelligence Bureau. Now this is a consequence of a power struggle that is taking place within the ruling establishment. You want to know more? So once you pointed out that the one that is backing Mr. Swamy Mr. Rakesh Asthana is also part of it. That's correct. How do I say that? The public tweets, not me. There are dozens of tweets which have been sent out by Dr. Swamy and this is, everything is in the public domain. That's the interesting part of it. Let me read out one tweet, just one tweet. The Supreme Court read out a Supreme Court on Wednesday the Vacation Bench heard this case as I told you and then said you can continue to investigate him and Mr. Rakesh Asthana meanwhile has gone and left. On the 26th of June, at 1226 p.m. p.m. that's in the middle of the day, right? Dr. Subramaniam Swamy tweeted, today what happened in the Supreme Court in my SL Maxis case shows that MOF, that's the Minister of Finance is full throttle campaigning for removing Dr. Rajeshwath with scurrilous bogus wild charges to ensure that he cannot charge he PC. Guess who PC he is at the end of this month? Because PC, guess who PC he is, has already been charge-sheeted. Now I will retaliate. He's saying that now I will retaliate. This is after all a member of parliament belonging to the ruling party. Now, let me throw some more light on this. Now we've discussed this whole SL Maxis case. There's a long history behind it. There are many, many, you know, interesting aspects to it. But you must understand two other things that Dr. Swamy is doing. One of them is that he is attacking openly Dr. Harsh Mukherjee. He is even gone to the extent of suggesting. Remember, he's had press conferences. He's said all these things in public. Look, the question that are being raised. How come the CBI hasn't filed a charge sheet in the SL Maxis case? This is not what Dr. Swamy is alleging. This is what I am asking raising questions based on my sources in the Ministry of Finance. How is it that the joint director, that is Dr. Rajeshwath Singh went ahead and attached properties of card tea belonging, allegedly belonging to Karti Chidambaram? It surprised many. These attachments have been upheld by the adjudicating authority under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act on the basis that the evidentiary value is so strong that the Central Bureau of Investigation not having filed a charge sheet in the same case does not nullify the alleged money laundering cases. Now, the enforcement directors have filed a charge sheet against these Mr. Chidambaram, P. Chidambaram, and Son Karti Chidambaram in June 2018. We don't know what other charge sheets are coming. We do not know in the now infamous INX case pertaining to the Chidambaram family what are the statements made by Indrani Mukherjee. How significant are these? Will they figure in the charge sheet? Now wait, there's one other important point you should note. Questions are being raised as two things about Dr. Hasmukhadia. Has he allegedly protected the Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi group of people? There are many wheels within the wheels. Mr. Rakesh Asthana has been involved in many controversies and there was even a case in the Supreme Court which challenged his appointment as the special director of the Central Bureau of Investigation. Now, one of this is the Sandesh Surya group of Gujarat and the investigations against the Sandesh Surya group. At the time that Rakesh Asthana, who by the way is the officer of the 1984 batch of the Indian Police Service belonging to this Gujarat cadre, he was appointed as a special director on the 22nd of October by an order of the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet comprising Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Rajnath Singh. This was challenged. By the way, Rakesh Asthana was part of the special investigating team appointed by the Gujarat government to inquire into the Godra train-burning episode in 2002. The short point, Mr. Rakesh Asthana is understood to be close to the Prime Minister as well as the BJP president, Mr. Amit Shah. Now, there is a lot of stories behind it and one story is that one of the reasons the present director, Mr. Lok Verma, opposed, objected in writing to the elevation of Rakesh Asthana was his alleged involvement. He was then Commissioner of Police Surat about receiving alleged bribes. I mean, it's all allegations from the Sandesh Surya group and among the bribe givers are supposed to be one Irfan Bhai, who's supposed to be Irfan Siddiqui, husband of Umtaz Patel, daughter of Ahmed Patel, member of the Rajya Sabha, belonging to the Congress, who is said to be a confidante of Congress President Sonia Karti. So, you're now seeing the wheels. So, now they have wheels with them. Wheels with them. All right. So, we can, if we summarize this, Pichit Amram involved, there's Subramaniam Swami involved and also Mr. Ahmed Patel. One more thing about Hasmukhatiya which has been allegations been made by Dr. Swam. He has alleged he's received gold biscuits from alleged Nirav Modi. Now, it is a fact that the Revenue Secretary, by the way, he was earlier Financial Services Secretary when all this happened, the first raids on Nirav Modi took place more than a year before the Punjab National Bank scam surfaced. Now, it's interesting that these gold biscuits, Dr. Adya said a mysterious person has committed it. The question then arises why hasn't he filed a first information report? After all, he's Revenue Secretary. He deposited in the Toshakhana. Now, what is the Toshakhana? Toshakhana is a depository where if government officers or president of India, others, they get these gifts from, they are supposed to deposit it there. Now, interestingly, the rules of the Toshakhana were also tweaked. So, these gold biscuits that Dr. Adya received from a mysterious person are now in the Toshakhana. All of this. And remember, Dr. Adya did not become the Cabinet Secretary. The present Cabinet Secretary, Mr. P. K. Sinha, his term has been extended all the way, if I remember correctly, till May 2019, which is more or less the term of the present government. Government. Yes. Let's bring in another character into this discussion who is Mr. Hoope in the Rai. Mr. Singh, in his letter writes, a new PIL was filed in the Vacation Bench as we have discussed on June 5th, 2018. I was busy questioning Mr. P. Chitambaram of the Honourable Supreme Court alleging the same old allegations against me. These allegations are same as one against which the Honourable Court issued Sumoto contempt notice against Sobrato Roy, Upen Rai and Subodh Jan. Right. I had explained your office for an appointment to lead you in person and explained my stand. I am paying to state that I was never granted an audience, Mr. Upen Rai against whom the Honourable Court issued notices of contempt for intimidating the undersigned has free access to the corridors of power in the finance ministry and is leading a malicious campaign against me by investigations and my office. All right. Very, very interesting that you brought it up. And now, you see, as I mentioned to you, the law office of the government deposits information to the Supreme Court which is in a sealed envelope and the bench observes that it is a highly sensitive matter and the allegations were very, very serious nature and as we talked it could involve national security. But then the enforcement directorate apparently tries to puncture this claim of the government. What does it say? And it's all there in the public domain. It says this one phone call came to Dr. Rajeshwar Singh. He received it from Dubai. But then there's other leaking information coming. It says one Radhe Shyam Rai who's connected with Upen Rai who was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation had access to the secret report and has already tweeted it. Today in the day and age of the social media all of this is in the public domain. You just have to try to look a little hard and you'll find every single document. Now what had happened? Who is Upen Rai? He's supposed to be a journalist. He's also supposed to be a person who has an interest in an airline, a private airline. The enforcement directorate on the 8th of June had arrested him. Now this is soon after a Delhi court had him bail in a case. He was earlier arrested by the CBI. Now he was arrested again. Now what has happened is very, very interesting. He had been first arrested by the CBI on the 3rd of May and he's again been arrested on the 8th of June by the enforcement directorate. The CBI arrested him for allegedly indulging in dubious financial transactions, getting an airport access pass made by the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security and why not say disclosing when he got his accreditation card with the Press Information Bureau he didn't disclose his other business interests. Now he's been accused of extortion, manipulation of an income tax department and the Supreme Court had on the 4th of May refused to interfere with his arrest. At one point of time when Mr. Subrata Roy was being scrutinized, the story is people like not just Upendra Rai but another journalist who used to work with Sahara allegedly tried to interfere in the administration of justice. Now Upendra Rai had a spectacular rise. He comes from Sherwood, which is a village on the banks of the Ganga in Ghajipur district. He is a young man. He became editor when he was in his late 20s. I understand now in his mid 30s. He started as an intern. He worked with Star News, now known as ABP News. He's had a spectacular rise. He was with CNBC Awas. Now it's interestingly that he was he's supposed to be a journalist and also a fixer. Now he's all involved in this. What did he fix? No, that's the whole story about what did he fix for whom. He was an advisor to Business World magazine and there have been quotes of him. It's interesting he's also filed a case against a website called P-Gurus. Now this P-Gurus has been published a lot of articles against Mr. Arun Jaitley, against Dr. Ahas Mukadhya. So it's interesting. So again you're getting the contours of the different lobbies. One thing I must say about Sri Upendra Rai, he's not only a local hero in the Purvanchal region of Uttar Pradesh, his friends got across party lines. Let's come back to the letter once again. Mr. Singh has been accused of manipulating the judiciary again and again. Where he says that... Which is Mr. Singh? Dr. Singh. Rajesh Singh. So he writes in his letter that it pains me further that you have expressed many a times to senior officers over casual conversations that I have been manipulating the judiciary. What has been alleged to be the joint director of the enforcement directorate is that he was trying to influence the judiciary. Now who? He names. He names that the revenue secretary is alleging that he tried to influence the judiciary. Now he obviously doesn't agree with that. He is going to deny it. But he, and it is a fact, let's accept that there were more than one occasion in the past when the 2G cases were on, where the SL Maxis cases were on, where the Roy Sahara cases were on, the Supreme Court actually did come out in support of Rajesh Singh. There were attempts to move him away. At one time he thought he would go and leave and go into a higher study. But one of the ways in which the whole system of administration of justice tends to be manipulated is by moving uncomfortable officers from their positions. So here I am, not taking up cudgels on behalf of anybody. I'm saying I would still like to believe that despite that there may be a few judges whose actions can be questioned but I would still like to believe that ordinary people of the country must continue to have faith in the apex court of the land. Whether this faith is justified or not is another story. But I would like to believe. I think it's about time that somebody comes out and clears the air. After all, Dr. Athea, who's one of the senior most bureaucrats, he's the head of the Ministry of Finance, the senior most civil servant, he has been alleged, he's ignoring his promotion. Now he says in the past the Central Administrative Tribunal has come out in his support, accusing him of compromising national security on an ego trip, settling scores with him. These are very, very, very serious allegations. I think instead of these anonymous sources coming out in Viva, I think it's about time that somebody came out and spoke out in Dhopin. But the short point is, this entire episode stinks. Let's leave on that note, but enjoy that the entire case stinks. As this case proceeds further, we'll be coming back to you on this one second. Thank you so much, Pranjar, for this conversation. Thank you. Thank you for watching NewsClick.