Mainstream Weeklyby Upal Chakraborty *
The Whistle Blower Act was passed in the year 2011. Ostensibly intended to “provide a mechanism to investigate alleged corruption and misuse of power by public servants and also protect anyone who exposes alleged wrongdoing in government bodies, projects, and offices” – whether fraud, corruption, or mismanagement.
Unfortunately, there is no law in place for private-sector whistleblowers, although most progressive companies have put in place theoretical policies to protect them so that appropriate action can be initiated when instances of malfeasance are brought to light. The top management of a corporation cannot be aware of what happens across the organization, especially where businesses are large –however efficient the processes and audit functions of the organization may be.
An Act for the private sector is the need of the hour for the amazingly simple reason that stakeholders are numerous – shareholders, employees, vendors, distributors, and even the customers. The financial health of the company has a direct impact on all the entities mentioned above.
The Tatas cannot be faulted on this score. They are rated among the topmost companies which have in place modern policies, processes, technologies and can boast of the best professionals. Their Code Of Conduct unambiguously states:"We do not tolerate any form of retaliation against anyone reporting legitimate concerns. Anyone involved in targeting such a person will be subject to disciplinary action. If you suspect that you or someone you know has been subjected to retaliation for raising a concern or for reporting a case, we encourage you to promptly contact your line manager(and if it does not yield results, report to the higher level supervisor), the company’s Ethics Counsellor, the Human Resources department, the MD/CEO, or the office of the group’s Chief Ethics Officer.“
What is reality? We provide here anecdotal evidence of the harassment a senior executive of one of the Tata Group companies had to face, not just in the form of dismissal from service but incarceration for a short period, currently out on bail. Living in Kolkata currently, he is under tremendous stress and financial hardship, only because he attempted to uphold the integrity of the organization employed in. He is today fearful of reprisals from the erstwhile executives of the organization, including threats to his life, forced to lodge an FIR at the Park Street Police Station recently.
The company in question is Tata Motors Insurance Broking & Advisory Services Ltd, a subsidiary of Tata Motors Limited, and Mr. PijushKantiPratulKanti Roy was employed in the capacity of Senior Manager.He had joined the company on 13/10/2014.
The IRDA (Insurance Regulatory Development Authority) rules specifically state that the Principal Officer of the Company needs to possess a Graduate Degree as a minimum qualification. This is a statutory requirement. Mr. Roy had stumbled on the fact (Various emails from unknown indentitities claiming to be whistleblowers attaching copies of those various self-attested degrees and also copies of letters by an NGO called Arise India Foundation who complained about that forgery to , a. The Chairman of IRDA, b. The Vice Chancellor of Chaudhary Charan Singh University, c. Mr. Cyrus Mistry, the TATA Group Chairman and d. The Police Commissioner of Mumbai)that the PO,Mr. Tarun Kumar Samant or Sawant, was the holder ofa fake degree from the Meerut University (presently Chaudhuri Charan Singh University), providing two different self-attested versions of his graduation certificate. Onewith the name as Tarun Kumar Sawant , subjects passed with are English, Economics and Political Science with General English as General Course with signature and official stamp of Vice Chancellor of the university only -and the second with the name as Tarun Kumar Samant , subjects passed with are Economics, Political Science and English Literature with General English as General Course with signature of Registrar and along with signature and official stamp of Vice Chancellor of the university. A cursory look at the certificatewould make it obvious even to a layman that the forgery was the job of a roadside DTP unit. It violated the statutory compliances of IRDA with the potential of causing embarrassment forboth TMBIASL and the Tata Group.
At this stage, Mr. Pijush Roy pursued the matter internally and took up with his seniors verbally and then officially through emails to all his seniors, company authorities andeven with top brass of Tata Group including the then Chairman Mr. Cyrus Mistry.
Sir, I have copies of two emails
one sent on 07/04/2016
to all including Cyrus Mistry on 19/04/2016
As a “reward” for his action, he was summarily terminated from service on the 5th August, 2016 on grounds of insubordination.
His contention was later validated by the IRDA. On the 2nd of May, 2017, the bodyissued a letter to the TMIBASL (reference IRDS/DB324/05/15) addressed to the Chairman, clearly stating that “the Certificate submitted by Mr. Tarun Kumar Samant to IRDAI, based on which approval of his appointment as Principal Officer of Tata Motors Insurance Brokers Advisory Services Limited was given on 07.04.2015, by the Authority, was surrendered by Sri. Samant to the University and stands invalidated by the University on 02.02.2016.” Hence they were directed “to remove him as the PO of the broking company immediately.” The letter was signed by Mr. RA Jagpal, Chief General Manager, IRDA.
The copy of the order was obtained by an appellate Mr. VikasNarayan, who lodged an appeal with the Chief Information Commissioner Mr. BimalJulkadated 04.04.2019 and is currently in the possession of Mr. Roy.The CIChad mentioned: “......On being queried by the Commission regarding the nature of the complaintand the action taken there on, the Respondent submitted that the consequent to an enquiryconducted by the Public Authority, the said officer (Mr. Tarun Samant) was removed from the post of Pr. Officer of Tata Motors Insurance Brokerage and Advisory Services Ltd. since he did not fulfil the qualifications required for such positions....”
Further, the CIC opined that
".......The complaint made by the Appellant having been proved correct about wrong disclosure of the qualifications of the Pr. Officer of the said advisory services firm tantamounts to duping and cheating the gullible public and therefore strict penal action was warranted in such cases......"
Earlier, Mr. Samant(or Sawant) was summoned to the offices of the IRDA on the 20th September 2016 where he defended himself on the ground that he later obtained a duplicate copy of the same. However, he discovered even later that the original copy was lying with him. However, as per the officials of IRDA, the Deputy Registrar of ChaudhuriCharan Singh University (earlier Meerut University) maintained that the certificate was illegally obtained.
The Minutes of Meeting was loaded on the website of IRDA on the 29th of April, 2019.
There have been many such instances of fake certificates detected earlier in Meerut University, including the ill-famed case of six hundred doctors as reported by DNA on 21st March 2018 and the captain of the Indian cricket team, reported by Deccan Chronicle on the9th July 2018.
Theharassment of Mr. Roy did not end after his unceremonious termination. Crooks and criminals have always pursuedwhistle-blowers, intending to burn him at the stakes, since their ego and selfish interests are bruised in the process of exposure.
Mr. Bhanubhai Sharma, CFO of the organization, lodged an FIR dated 14/4/2018, ( general diary reference 10/18) addressed to the Deputy Commissioner of Police,Cyber Crimes Investigation Cell, Bandra-Kurla Complex under section 66© and Section 66 (D) of IT Act,2000 as well as Sections 419,500,501, and 504.read with 34 and 120 b of the IPC, with the assistance of the advocate SubhashSurve. The FIR was against Arise India Foundation, NGO, Dr.KodurVenkatesh,RaghavendraNewalgi, theWestern India Head of Arise India Foundation, Vikas K. Narayan, an ex-employee of TMIBASL, and unknown persons. Mr. Roy’s name was not even mentioned in the FIR.The above were accused of using three E-mail IDs created to postdefamatory messages in the name of TarunSawant, Alleging that he had forged his certificates. The letter was farcicallyin the name of Mr. TarunSawant. These messages were attached with the FIR. Mr. Roy’s name was mentioned in the letter, clearly stating that he had sent a mail under his official ID internally as wellas to several external bodies to malign Mr. Sawant as well as harm the business interests of the company – intending to help competition. It was alleged that Mr. Roy created those mail-IDs which were recovered, along with the passwords. This was a blatant lie. Mr. Roy had done no such thing. In reality, they enquired with Google, Rediff, etc. plus several internet service providers, his Internet account, mobile connectivity but could not obtain an iota of proof. They even visited a few Cyber Cafes in Kolkata, unable to obtain any documentary confirmation.
A gutsy individual, Mr. Roy had openly mailed to employees including top authorities of Tata Group and then Tata Chairman from his official ID, with no need to resort to spoofing.
On April, 2018, Mumbai Police,through an email summoned Mr. Roy. The pupose being the issue of University Graduation Certificate of TarunSamant. Owing to his distressful condition he was unable to go to Mumbai but through a return email with a copy to Kolkata Police, assured them of total cooperation as a law abiding citizen. But oneday three officials of Mumbai police bumped in his residence arrested him , seized his passport and immediately taken him to Mumbai. After that, he was in police custody for ten days and was severely roughed up by Mumbai Police particularly for the reason of writing to Mr. Ratan Tata. In this regard, fact worth mention that Mr. Roy had also written to Mr. Ratan Tata about that forgery and Mr. Tata also assured him of fare enquiry.
After that Mr. Roy was detained in Taloja prison for long 41 days and finally got released on bail with stringent conditions.
Over and above all these Mr. Roy was also made a party to a defamation case of Rs. 100 crores in Mumbai High Court jointly by that Tarun Kumar Samant or Sawant and Tata Motors Insurance Broking & Advisory Sevices Limited.
But strangely, neither that Tarun Kumar Samant nor the Tata Motors Insurance Broking & Advisory Services Limited orthe Tata Group challenged the decision of removal of Taraun Kumar Samant or Sawant by IRDA to any court of law.
Only once all of them approached Delhi High Court during the month of December, 2016, where on the very first day of the hearing ie on 07/12/2016 the Learned Justice Rajiv SahaiEndlaw gave an instruction to their counsel to verify the genuineness of university degree of TarunKumar Samant or Sawant from the insurance regulator IRDA. It is also to be noted that the said order was dated 07/12/2016 whereas the University by then, had already invalidated the degree through their later dated 02/02/2016 to IRDA. But the appellants went for an "Out of the Court" settlement with defendants / respondents.
Also, It is not clear why IRDA took more than one year to remove Tarun Kumar Samant or Sawant from the post of Principal Officer.
As stated earlier, the top managers of the Tata Group may not be aware of happenings in one unit of the group. It is improbable that it would have reached Mr. Ratan Tata. Mr. Cyrus Mistry was the Chairman at that time. It is the processes of whistle-blowing which are being questioned here – half-hearted, disorganized, and lacking credibility.
Therefore, it is necessary for the Government to step in with an Act,as they have done for sexual harassment.
The Media too has to take up cudgels. There are countless PijushRoys in our country passing through trauma, while crooks like PramodSamantroam around scot-free, hale and hearty.