National Herald: National: Monday, July 02, 2018.
In April
2018, Manoranjan S Roy was again in the news after he exposed through RTI
replies provided by the Election Commission of India
The
Government does not know how many security presses used for printing currency
have been sold off since 1947. Manoranjan Roy claims to have received three
different replies to the question.
The first
reply stated that in 1998-99, one machine was replaced. The second reply
maintained that 10 machines were auctioned in June 1995. And the third reply
showed that 16 machines were auctioned during the same period by the Security
Press at Nashik.
What is more,
nobody seems to know who had purchased the old machines and what has happened
to them. Rather than auction the machines, he suggests, it might be a better
idea to grind and reduce the old machines into scrap before selling them. He
refers to the Telgi counterfeit stamp paper scam and says that auctioning the
machines could severely damage the economy.
In April,
2018 Roy was again in the news after he exposed through RTI replies provided by
the Election Commission of India, EVM manufacturing companies and the State
Election Commissions that there were glaring discrepancies between EVMs
supplied and the machines deployed for holding elections
He has been
collecting information on economic offences and black money since 2012. And he
claims to have filed upwards of 200 applications under the Right To Information
Act to get the figures of demonetised currency deposited in various cooperative
banks.
The
forty-eight year old activist says the replies he has received led him to
believe that the Modi Government’s much-hyped battle against corruption and
black money is hogwash. “Demonetisation appears to have been the biggest scam
that enabled BJP leaders more than anyone else to turn black money into white
legally,” says Roy.
“Demonetisation
was followed by the introduction of Rs 2000 currency note. All this, it looks,
to me has given a boost to black money instead of curbing it,” he adds.
Even before
Demonetisation, he claims to have smelt a rat in the management of currency by
the banking system. Conflicting RTI replies to the same question by different
agencies, he says, made him aware of the mismatch between the currency printed,
the currency received and rejected and the currency in circulation.
Currency, he
says, were either missing or in excess. He based his conclusion on information
he collected over a long period of time. But his PIL seeking a probe was
dismissed by the Bombay High Court. He has now filed an appeal before the
Supreme Court but says he already knows the fate of the appeal.
He produces
reports to claim that long before the PNB fraud and before diamond trader Nirav
Modi fled the country and became a household name, he had alerted the CBI in
2011 about companies wilfully defaulting on loans amounting to one Crore Rupees
and more. The CBI ordered a probe after Roy wrote a letter to the President of
India.
Roy
complained to then Director General of Income Tax (Investigation) in August,
2012, seeking a probe into the companies of one of the absconders in the Punjab
National Bank (PNB) fraud, Mehul Choksi. Through RTI replies Roy had learnt in
2012 from Mumbai Customs department that Choksi’s group companies –Gitanjali
Gems Ltd imported 750 kg of gold and Gitanjali Jewellery Ltd imported 171 kg of
gold without paying a single rupee as duty. Shockingly, Roy says, Gitanjali
Jewellery Ltd. was not even registered with the Registrar of Companies.
“In 2017, I
approached the then DG of IT (Investigation), BD Bishnoi in Mumbai, who
directed me to follow up with the concerned Principal Director, ITI, PS Paniay.
But when I approached Paniay, he asked me to contact the Finance Ministry.” he
recalls.
Replies by
Mumbai Customs showed that nearly three dozen diamond and gold jewellery
companies had imported more than 75 tonnes of gold and diamond in 2012. But no
duty was paid by any of these companies on this massive quantity, says Roy.
In April,
2018 Roy was again in the news after he exposed through RTI replies provided by
the Election Commission of India, EVM manufacturing companies and the State
Election Commissions that there were glaring discrepancies between EVMs
supplied and the machines deployed for holding elections.
Regretting
that PM Modi never talks about growing economic injustice in the country in his
Man Ki Baat, Roy passionately argues how black money can be ended and the same
can be used for the balanced and inclusive growth of the country.
“It pains me
to see glaring economic inequalities in the country where only a few people
have amassed the major share of country’s total wealth and on the other hand
there are majority of people who have been suffering in the absence of good
healthcare, education and other basic facilities,” says Roy, adding resolutely
that, “I’ve a lot of hope from the Supreme Court.”