Indian Social Scandals - The Essar Leaks

The Essar Leaks

One of the biggest business-political scandals of India is linked to the Essar Group. The Essar Group is an Indian business conglomerate. The scandal revolves around a number of office memos, e-mails, records, and telephone conversations that were leaked from Essar. The information indicated that they were granting favors to bureaucrats, politicians, and journalist as a means of manipulating the government and judiciary system of India.

How the Essar Leaks Were Revealed

It was an unknown whistleblower, in 2015, who leaked a number of Essar Group’s memos and emails. The individual contacted Prashant Bhushan, a lawyer-activist, and shared these documents. The documents were said to be proof that the business conglomerate was using favors and bribes as a means of influencing public opinion and policy.

The Investigation

In 2016, Suren Uppal, a lawyer based in Delhi, submitted a complaint to the Prime Minister. It stated that Essar had been tapping conversations of VIP’s throughout the 2000s. This surveillance was conducted on cabinet ministers, the office of the Prime Minister, rival business owners, and government bureaucrats.

It further stated that Essar’s head of security, Albasit Khan, was the person who supervised the tappings. Khan was accused of using special mobile interceptor SIM cards. These were used to carry out the tapping of these conversations, using the Essar controlled BPL Mobile network. The same network was being used by a rival company, Reliance Industries Limited. This is how Essar gained access to the conversations until 2005 when Reliance Industries Limited moved from the network. It is alleged that Essar continued the tapping using Hutchinson network.

It was in June of 2016 that a report of the tapped conversations was published by Outlook magazine. Albasit Khan stated to the media that no such recordings ever took place and that the authenticity and source of the information were not known. Khan implicated the Mumbai police, stating that Vijay Salaskar, a police officer gave Khan the tapes to keep them safe back in 2005. However, this was denied by the Mumbai Police, casting doubt on Khan’s claims.

Essar’s Motives

Many of the taped conversations show that Essar was using manipulation tactics to oust business rivals and gain a stronger foothold in the industry. They used favors, such as giving away high-end phones to many senior bureaucrats and politicians, offering luxury accommodations and weekends on yachts. They also used VIP recommendations for hiring employees, regardless of whether they were qualified or not.

Another tactic used was to give gifts to middlemen and lower-ranking individuals in a number of ministries. These people were seen as vital in procuring documents and information of importance. This gave Essar officials access to a number of government communications that were deemed confidential.

Essar’s Response

Essar filed an affidavit in 2015 to dismiss the investigation request, stating they had not received any benefits from the favors they had granted. They were adamant that these favors were nothing more than common courtesies. A complaint was also filed with the police, along with the threat of legal action should anyone publish any allegation that was based on the emails stolen from their system. Essar made further claims that people in their company were receiving anonymous calls. The calls threatened to publish damaging information unless money demands were met. To date, Essar claims many of the emails were fabricated in order to blackmail the company.

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