CHENNAI: CBI hands tied on tainted ex-Port chief

                       M K Sinha, Deputy Conservator of ChPT,

                 G J Rao (then deputy chairman of ChPT and now chairman of Paradip Port Trust)

K Suresh (former chairman of ChPT and now principal secretary, Public Undertaking & Mining Corporation in Madhya Pradesh)

Source: http://expressbuzz.com/cities/chennai/cbi-hands-tied-on-tainted-ex-port-chief/245743.html

By G Saravanan

Published in The New Indian Express, Chennai, on February 7, 2011:

CHENNAI: Cases filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation aga inst former Chairman of Chennai Port Trust K Suresh and two other officials for allegedly causing a loss of Rs 20 crore to the Port Trust in August 2009 have not reached their logical conclusion due to delay the central government in giving the sanction to prosecute them.

According to the CBI website, the sanction for prosecution against K Suresh (former chairman of ChPT and now principal secretary, Public Undertaking & Mining Corporation in Madhya Pradesh), G J Rao (then deputy chairman of ChPT and now chairman of Paradip Port Trust) and M K Sinha, Deputy Conservator of ChPT, were pending with the central government since November 16 last year.

While the permission to prosecute Suresh must come from the Department of Personnel and Training, which comes under the watch of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, it is the Ministry of Shipping, headed by G K Vasan, that must deal with Rao and Sinha.

The CBI, after conducting extensive raids in August 2009, had registered cases against them under different sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 for causing a loss of Rs 20 crore to the Chennai Port Trust by allegedly entering into a criminal conspiracy with a Singapore firm. The officials were accused of abusing their official position to allot a berth in the Chennai Port on April 11, 2007 to a non-functional ship, M V San Giorgio, which had to be towed in to the harbour.

Besides recovering gold bars from Suresh’s bank lockers, CBI officials had seized documents of prop erties and a huge bank balance totalling Rs 2.36 crore (including $6,443) from his official residence.

3 years on, dead ship still at Chennai Port

CHENNAI: Chennai Port Trust’s (ChPT) former chairman K Suresh landed in the CBI net mainly because he allegedly allowed a ‘dead’ ship, MV San Giorgio, carrying 12,800 cubic metres of expensive teak worth over Rs 10 crore, to dock in the harbour, causing a loss of Rs 20 crore to the port.

According to the CBI, Suresh along with then deputy chairman of ChPT G J Rao and ChPT deputy conservator M K Sinha abused their positions and allotted a berth in the Chennai Port to MV San Giorgio, despite knowing it did not have valid documents; its licenses had expired; and  had no crew. It was carrying cargo of Singapore-based Olam International Limited from the Overndo Port, West Africa to Tuticorin Port. 

It was actually towed in as it had developed a snag mid-way. With the Tuticorin Port refusing permission citing its unseaworthy condition, it was towed into  Chennai Port and berthed at WQ1 bay on April 17, 2007. 

The ship was expected to deliver the cargo at Tuticorin but its original owners, Sandele Navigation Corporation, sold it to Exclusive Marine Inc midway. So, the cargo owners towed it to Port Victoria,  Seychelles, where a dispute broke out between the crew and the ship owners, who also got into a legal tangle with the financier bank, which obtained an order of attachment from. But Olam International filed an intervening application. Over three-and-a-half years later, it’s still at Chennai Port.