Manoranjan Roy: A one man mission to ferret the truth     

The Government does not know how many security presses used for printing currency have been sold off since 1947. Manoranjan Roy claims to have received three different replies to the question.

The first reply stated that in 1998-99, one machine was replaced. The second reply maintained that 10 machines were auctioned in June 1995. And the third reply showed that 16 machines were auctioned during the same period by the Security Press at Nashik.

What is more, nobody seems to know who had purchased the old machines and what has happened to them. Rather than auction the machines, he suggests, it might be a better idea to grind and reduce the old machines into scrap before selling them. He refers to the Telgi counterfeit stamp paper scam and says that auctioning the machines could severely damage the economy.

He has been collecting information on economic offences and black money since 2012. And he claims to have filed upwards of 200 applications under the Right To Information Act to get the figures of demonetised currency deposited in various cooperative banks.

The forty-eight year old activist says the replies he has received led him to believe that the Modi Government’s much-hyped battle against corruption and black money is hogwash. “Demonetisation appears to have been the biggest scam that enabled BJP leaders more than anyone else to turn black money into white legally,” says Roy.

“Demonetisation was followed by the introduction of Rs 2000 currency note. All this, it looks, to me has given a boost to black money instead of curbing it,” he adds.

Even before Demonetisation, he claims to have smelt a rat in the management of currency by the banking system. Conflicting RTI replies to the same question by different agencies, he says, made him aware of the mismatch between the currency printed, the currency received and rejected and the currency in circulation.

Currency, he says, were either missing or in excess. He based his conclusion on information he collected over a long period of time. But his PIL seeking a probe was dismissed by the Bombay High Court. He has now filed an appeal before the Supreme Court but says he already knows the fate of the appeal.

He produces reports to claim that long before the PNB fraud and before diamond trader Nirav Modi fled the country and became a household name, he had alerted the CBI in 2011 about companies wilfully defaulting on loans amounting to one Crore Rupees and more. The CBI ordered a probe after Roy wrote a letter to the President of India.

Roy complained to then Director General of Income Tax (Investigation) in August, 2012, seeking a probe into the companies of one of the absconders in the Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud, Mehul Choksi. Through RTI replies Roy had learnt in 2012 from Mumbai Customs department that Choksi’s group companies –Gitanjali Gems Ltd imported 750 kg of gold and Gitanjali Jewellery Ltd imported 171 kg of gold without paying a single rupee as duty. Shockingly, Roy says, Gitanjali Jewellery Ltd. was not even registered with the Registrar of Companies.

“In 2017, I approached the then DG of IT (Investigation), BD Bishnoi in Mumbai, who directed me to follow up with the concerned Principal Director, ITI, PS Paniay. But when I approached Paniay, he asked me to contact the Finance Ministry.” he recalls.

Replies by Mumbai Customs showed that nearly three dozen diamond and gold jewellery companies had imported more than 75 tonnes of gold and diamond in 2012. But no duty was paid by any of these companies on this massive quantity, says Roy.

In April, 2018 Roy was again in the news after he exposed through RTI replies provided by the Election Commission of India, EVM manufacturing companies and the State Election Commissions that there were glaring discrepancies between EVMs supplied and the machines deployed for holding elections.

Regretting that PM Modi never talks about growing economic injustice in the country in his Man Ki Baat, Roy passionately argues how black money can be ended and the same can be used for the balanced and inclusive growth of the country.

“It pains me to see glaring economic inequalities in the country where only a few people have amassed the major share of country’s total wealth and on the other hand there are majority of people who have been suffering in the absence of good healthcare, education and other basic facilities,” says Roy, adding resolutely that, “I’ve a lot of hope from the Supreme Court.”