In the Hon’ble High Court of Delhi at New
Delhi
Civil Writ Jurisdiction
Writ Petition No. 1280 of 2012
IN THE
MATTER OF:
Seema
Sapra …Petitioner
versus
General
Electric Company and Others ….Respondents
Affidavit of petitioner pLACING ON RECORD SOME CABLES
(FROM THE WIKILEAKS LEAKED CABLES ) SENT BY THE US EMBASSY IN NEW DELHI WHICH
ESTABLISH THAT BOTH GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY AND THE US GOVERNMENT WERE
LOBBYING PRIME MINISTER MANMOHAN SINGH, RAILWAY MINISTER LALU PRASAD
YADAV, FOREIGN SECRETARY MENON AND OTHER
INDIAN GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS FOR CREATING THE MARHOWRA DIESEL LOCOMOTiVE FACTORY
PROJECT AND FOR AWARDING THIS PROJECT TO GENERAL ELECTRIC
I, Seema
Sapra, daughter of Late Shri A. R. Sapra, aged 41 years, previously resident of
G 4, first floor, Jangpura Extension, New Delhi 110014 and rendered homeless on
30 May 2012 (because of and as a result of the whistleblower complaints of
corruption, forgery, bribery, fraud and illegal activities made against General
Electric, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Planning Commission, Railway Ministry and
Ministry of Finance and as a result of the whistleblower corruption petition
(W.P. (C ) 1280/ 2012) and because of my complaints of sexual harassment
against Mr Soli J Sorabjee and Mr Raian Karanjawala) in contempt of this
Hon’ble Court’s order dated May 25, 2012 and presently homeless and sleeping in
my car since 27 February 2013 (except for a period of approximately 15 days in
June 2013) do hereby solemnly affirm and state as under:
1.
I am the Petitioner in
the present Petition and am well aware of the facts of the case and am
competent to file the present affidavit.
2.
This affidavit is being filed by the
petitioner placing on record some cables (from the Wikileaks leaked cables)
sent by the US Embassy in New Delhi which establish that both General Electric
Company and the United States Government were lobbying Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh, Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav, Foreign Secretary Menon, and other
Indian Government officials for creation of the Marhowra diesel locomotive
factory Project and for award of this project to General Electric.
3.
True copies of six
relevant cables sent by the United
States embassy establishing this lobbying
are annexed hereto collectively as Annexure P-1. Relevant extracts from these
cables are produced in the tabulated list of date below. This list of dates can
be added to the list of dates and events placed on record by the petitioner in
CM 7197/ 2013. These cables show that General Electric and Pratyush Kumar had
even lied to the US
embassy and had hidden the fact from US Embassy officials that their 2009
financial bid had been rejected by the Railway Ministry as non-responsive.
26
December 2006
|
US
Embassy
Senator
Specter Meeting With P.m. Singh
“Senator
Specter mentioned how impressed he was with the development he had witnessed
in early legs of his visits to the southern cities of
|
22 Feb
2007
|
Issue of justification for the ELF
(Electric Locomotive Factory) and DLF (Diesel Locomotive Factory) Projects
Cabinet
Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved Railway proposal to set up ELF
and DLF.
This
approval and the basis for this approval have not been placed on the court
record by the Railway Ministry.
According
to Railway Ministry affidavit dated 14 January 2013 in reply to CM 19501/
2012, there is a CCEA note justifying the need for DLF and ELF and the need
for new manufacturing capacity for diesel and electric locomotives. This note
has not been produced on record.
Mr
Montek Singh Ahluwalia is a member of the CCEA.
The
genesis of these Projects is a recommendation by Mr Montek Singh Ahluwalia at
the behest of General Electric.
|
28 Sep
2007
|
US
Embassy
“The
Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) has proposed to offer loans
at attractive rates to build Dedicated Freight Corridors (DFC) in
|
11 Dec
2007
|
US
Embassy
Railway
Minister Lalu Reaffirms Support For Nuclear Deal But Wants Political
Consensus
“Yadav
updated the Ambassador about his efforts to continue upgrading
…
The
Ambassador commended Yadav on his success in turning around Indian Railways.
Yadav said that he operated the Railways according to three words:
"faster, heavier and longer." "Each word is worth two billion
dollars," he asserted. Yadav said that he hoped to capture more of the
freight market, 60 percent of which still travels by truck, by constructing a
dedicated freight corridor from
…
Lalu
was attended by four key RJD Members of Parliament (MPs) and senior Rail
Ministry bureaucrat, who greatly amplified the Minister's thoughts as
expressed in workable, heavily accented English.”
|
26
April 2008
|
RFQ
issued for Marhowra diesel locomotive factory Project
|
1 Aug
2008
|
Issue of General Electric having access to
unreleased Bid Documents in 2008
Reproduced
below is an email that the petitioner received from Ms Ruby Anand on March 9,
2010 forwarding five pdf files that were sent to her by Ms Praveena
Yagnambhat (from General Electric) on
August 1, 2008. Ms Ruby Anand has in the past served as General Counsel
for General Electric in
i.
11th July 2008 D
ii.
11th July 2008 D
Loco Maintenance Contract
iii.
11th July 2008 D
Loco Procurement Contract
iv.
11th July 2008 D
Loco RFP Document
v.
11th July 2008 D
Loco Shareholders Agreement
The
email from Ms Ruby Anand read:
“From: Ruby
Anand <rubysdesk@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Mar 9, 2010 at 8:35 PM Subject: See the 5th doc for now - the Loco RFP -issued earlier To: Seema Sapra <seema.sapra@googlemail.com> ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Yagnambhat, Praveena (GE Infra, Transportation) <praveena.yagnambhat@ge.com> Date: Fri, Aug 1, 2008 at 4:10 PM Subject: Loco RFP To: Ruby Anand <rubysdesk@gmail.com>
Dear Ruby
Attached please find a soft copy of the Loco RFP. Please
let me know if you are unable to open any of the files.
Regards
Praveena Yagnambhat
GE Infrastructure -
Phone : +91 11 4155 5317
Fax : +91 11 2335
5969
--
Ruby Ruby Anand C-4/7 Safdarjung Development Area
A
printout of the pdf file - 11th July 2008 D Loco RFP Document – which the
petitioner received from Ms Ruby Anand on March 9, 2010 has been attached as
Annexure P-2 to the rejoinder affidavit filed by the petitioner on July 23,
2012. This document is the Railway Ministry draft RFP for the 2008-2009
tender for the diesel locomotive factory Project at Marhowra. Similarly, the other four documents
attached to Ms Ruby Anand’s email dated March 9, 2010 are all Indian Railways
draft documents for the 2008-9 tender for the Marhowra locomotive factory
Project.
The RFP
for the Marhowra Project tender in 2008 was not issued by the Railways
Ministry until the 22 September 2008. So how did General Electric have
in its possession on August 1, 2008, the draft documents for the 2008-2009
Marhowra Project tender? How did General Electric get access to these
documents on or before August 1, 2008?
These
internal Railway Ministry documents (still in draft form) were obviously
obtained by General Electric illegally before they were officially finalised
and released publicly. This evidence confirms the complaints of corruption
against General Electric. General Electric needs to disclose how it came
into possession of these confidential documents. How were these documents
leaked to General Electric?
The
affidavit filed by the Railway Ministry in response to CM 19501/ 2012 does
not offer any explanation about how General Electric came to possess a copy
of the draft RFP on 1 August 2008, when this RFP was formally released to
Bidders only on 22 September 2008.
All
that this affidavit dated 14 January 2013 filed by the Railway Ministry in
response to CM 19501/ 2012 (in volume 13 of the court record) states on this
issue is the following:
“It is
pertinent to note that any RFP document is one which is discussed,
deliberated and finalized after discussion with several stakeholders and
consultants.”
No
explanation has been provided by the Railway Ministry as to how General
Electric had in its possession the draft Bid Documents for the ELF tender on
1 August 2008, before these were released to the two Bidders, EMD and General
Electric.
The
statement in the Railway affidavit that “It is pertinent to note that any RFP
document is one which is discussed, deliberated and finalized after
discussion with several stakeholders and consultants” is an attempt to cover
up the fact that General Electric had in its possession, the draft Bid
Documents before they were officially/ formally released/ shared with either
General Electric or EMD.
This
provides evidence that the DLF Project have been created/ tailor-made at the
behest of and for General Electric. General Electric has since 2008
influenced the bid documents to ensure that a commercially lucrative contract
and opportunity is created for itself using their contacts/ agents within the
Indian government (like Mr Montek Singh Ahluwalia).
The
role of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the role of his close aide Mr Montek
Singh Ahluwalia and the role of other officials from the PMO and the Planning
Commission in creating these suspect Projects for General Electric and in
interfering in the bid process and the bid documents with intent to help
General Electric secure the DLF Project requires to be investigated.
|
3 Oct
2008
|
US
Embassy
“TWO
LARGE RAILWAY PROJECTS WITH
…
MAJOR
RAILWAY TENDER TO BE AWARDED TO ONE OF TWO US FIRMS CHUGGING FORWARD
--------------------------------------- ¶7. (U) The GOI decided last week to release
the Request for Proposal for a $5 billion diesel locomotive project, which
will be awarded to one of two American firms. Globally only GE and EMD
produce diesel locomotives; they are, therefore, the only bidders on the
project to supply 1000 diesel locomotives and build a locomotive factory in
|
31 Oct
2008
|
US
Embassy
“JBIC
TO FUND THE WESTERN DEDICATED FREIGHT CORRIDOR
…
|
10 Feb
2009
|
Issue of tailor-made DLF Project and
tenders and issue of illegal lobbying by General Electric
The petitioner
draws the attention of this court to a public statement made by Mr. John
Rice, Vice Chairman of General Electric Company in connection with the
Madhepura and Marhowra Projects during an investor meeting on February 10,
2009. Mr John Rice stated:
“We are also competing for the
In this
statement, Mr John Rice has disclosed that the Marhowra Projects which is the
subject matter of one of the impugned tenders in this writ petition “has been 10 years in the making, and will
be all of the diesel electric locomotive requirements for
|
16
February 2009
|
Financial
bid for DLF tender received from GE Global Sourcing India Private Limited.
EMD, also shortlisted did not bid.
General
Electric’s bid was found to be non-responsive and the tender was discharged.
|
11 Jun
2009
|
US
Embassy
Fs
Menon And U/s Burns Discuss New Strategic Dialogue Architecture And Bilateral
Issues
“At
Burns' request, Menon promised to follow up on the tender won by General
Electric to build a railroad locomotive plant in
|
4.
Also annexed hereto as
Annexure P-2 are true copies of two cables sent by the US embassy that
establish Mr Montek Singh Ahluwalia’s corrupt inteference in issues that do not
concern him and do not fall within his job description as Vice Chairman of the
Planning Commission of India and which establish his persistent lobbying on
behalf of Amercian interests.
DEPONENT
VERIFICATION
Verified
at New Delhi on
this 26th day of August 2013,
that the contents of the above affidavit are true and correct to my
knowledge and that nothing material has been concealed therefrom.
DEPONENT
In the Hon’ble High Court of Delhi
at New Delhi
Civil Writ Jurisdiction
Writ Petition No. 1280 of 2012
IN THE
MATTER OF:
Seema
Sapra …Petitioner
versus
General
Electric Company and Others ….Respondents
INDEX
No.
|
Particulars
|
Pages
|
1
|
Affidavit
of petitioner placing on record some cables (from the Wikileaks leaked
cables) sent by the US Embassy in New Delhi which establish that both General
Electric Company and the United States Government were lobbying Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh, Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav, Foreign
Secretary Menon, and other Indian Government officials for creation of the
Marhowra diesel locomotive factory Project and for award of this project to
General Electric.
|
1-10
|
2
|
Annexute
P-1 – True copes of six relevant cables sent by the
|
11-29
|
3
|
Annexure
P-2 – True copies of two cables sent by the US Embassy in New Delhi that
establish Mr Montek Singh Ahluwalia’s corruption and lobbying activities on
behalf of American interests
|
30-37
|
Place: New Delhi Petitioner
in Person
August 26
2013 Seema
Sapra
Rendered homeless since May 30, 2012 as a result of
corruption complaints against General Electric and as a result of this
whistleblower corruption petition (W.P. (C ) 1280/ 2012) and presently homeless
and sleeping in her car since 27 February 2013
All 17
respondents have been served with an advance copy of this affidavit by email
dated 26 August 2013.
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