HYDERABAD: An amount of Rs 35 crore was believed to have been paid as kickbacks to various people in connection with the Rs 133 Crore urea import scandal involving former prime minister P.V_ Narasimha Rao’s son Prabhakar Rao and close relative B. Sanjeeva Rao, According to information available here, the major portion was given to Prabhakar and Sanjeeva while M. Sambasiva Rao Goud, a native of Chilakaluripet in Guntur district and brain behind the entire deal, reportedly got Rs 7 Crore.
It all started with Sambasiva Rao, a former employee of Hindustan Insecticides Lid joining Mallesh Goud, a smalltime chemical dealer in Hyderabad, after he quit his job. The duo is stated to have first approached Prakash Yadav, son of the then fertilizer minister Ram Lakhan Singh Yadav, through a local functionary to swing the deal.
But when he became too demanding, they set their sights on Prabhakar Rao, who was an acquaintance of Mallesh Goud. Goud was then running a small firm Sai Krishna Chemicals at Hyderguda here and the name of the firm was subsequently changed to Sai Krishna Impex.
Sambasiva Rao started operating from a flat in Snow Drops Apartments in Begumpet area and even installed a fax machine there; He slowly cultivated Prabhakar Rao and took his associate Sanjeeva Rao as a director of the new firm. To help swing the deal, Prabhakar Rao is alleged to have been instrumental in getting the post of managing director of NFL to C.K. Ramkrishnan, who was languishing, without promotion: Ramakrishnan then pushed the deal through.
‘The consignment of imported fertilizer was to have been despatched by the end of 1995 but till February, nothing had arrived at the Indian shores; On persistent enquiries from the Fertilizer Secretary, Sambasiva Rao kept telling NFL that the urea Was being despatched and some technical problems had held it up. Subsequently, without even passing on the documents of despatch through any nationalized bank or the Indian Embassy, the Turkish firm Karsan raised a bill and sent faked despatch letters through fax directly to Sai Krishna Impex. On the basis of the faxed documents, pressure was brought on NFL to make the payment, sources said.
Ramakrishnan obliged Sambasiva Rao, who is stated to have given the impression that he too was a relative of the then prime minister, making full use of his “Rao” suffix.
As soon as the payment was made, three separate payoffs of $40 million, $20 million and $40 million were stated to have been settled and sources said that the money was transferred to Prabhakar Rao, Sanjeeva Rao and Sambasiva Rao.
He is then stated to have “disappeared” till he was traced by the CBI which first took in Mallesh Goud, the managing director of Sai Impex. Mallesh Goud is stated to have told the CBI that he did not know about the deal and everything was handled by Sambasiva Rao.
Article extracted from this publication >> June 12, 1996
