Former excise official files plea against beverage body

BHUBANESWAR: Retired excise superintendent Subarna Naik has filed a plea in the special vigilance court seeking a probe into an alleged scam of over Rs 27 crore in the Odisha State Beverages Corporation (OSBC). Several retired and serving bureaucrats have been named in the petition.
Naik, who also worked in the corporation as general manager (technical) for two years, has included names of former chief secretary and present state election commissioner Ajit Tripathy, former chief secretary and present chief information commissioner Tarunkanti Mishra and Jagdish Prasad Dash, all of who served as chairpersons of the corporation, home secretary U N Behera who was earlier excise secretary, former OSBC MD Sailendra Narayan Sarangi, former excise commissioner Syed Osatulla and former OSBC general manager (finance) Archana Das Pattanayak.Besides, around 20 private companies have also been implicated in the case.
The petition alleged that the public servants, during the period 2001 to 2005, 'dishonestly and intentionally' caused Rs 27.64 crore loss to the public exchequer 'hand-in-glove with private companies'. It said the officials refunded Rs 16.50 crore, which the government had previously received from sale proceeds of liquor to the suppliers in 2003-04 and 2004-05.
"Wrongful refund of the amount is also narrated in individual payment files of liquor suppliers in the OSBC relating to 2004-05. Maintenance of individual payment files of suppliers, which was established official procedure for five years, was strangely discontinued from 2004-05 by the said public servants," the petition stated.
The complaint further alleged that the then excise secretary short-printed excise adhesive labels by 92 per cent in 2001-02 ignoring a cabinet memorandum. The secretary printed just one crore adhesive label against a need of 12 crore. The deliberate "omission" caused a loss of Rs 11 crore to the state exchequer, which the government could have got from printing the labels (as each label fetched the government Re 1). The benefits directly went to the suppliers, it alleged.
The court ahs called the petition 'maintainable'. Citing the recent precedence of Supreme Court's observation in Dr Subramaniam Swamy's petition against Dr Manmohan Singh, the court said 'the complainant does have locus standi to file the present complaint and, as such, the complaint is maintainable in this court'. The court, however, said, "This is premature to decide about cognizance".
Petitioner's advocate Gokula Chandra Mahapatra said the court deliberated on "maintainability" of the complaint on its own for its satisfaction. "We will put the evidences available for its perusal at the time of recording initial statement scheduled on Saturday," he added.