NEEPCO affairs turn murkier
SHILLONG: NEEPCO, which is embroiled in many controversies, is yet again in the news after A.G West, Chairman and Managing Director, lodged a complaint with the police that two persons, Naba Ram Rabha and Sanjib Kalita, gained access to the documents kept in his personal file and took copies of his personal documents maintained by the HR wing of the office.
Earlier, the report of the vigilance investigation of the former Chief Vigilance Officer (CVO) of NEEPCO, Satish Verma, submitted to the Ministry of Power said the current Director (Personnel), SB Borgohain, had allegedly connived with Rabha and Kalita to commit a criminal offence of conspiracy and falsely complained to the Centre and the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) against Kharkongor, leading to criminal breach of trust even as Verma recommended that both of them may be prosecuted for offences punishable under sections 120-B, 182 and 409 of the Indian Penal Code.
Both Rabha and Kalita had questioned the tribal status of Kharkongor in their letters to the Union Ministry of Power and the complaints had copies of documents supplied from the official personal file of Kharkongor, which was found to be an inside job.
One of the complaints of Kalita made on September 16, 2015, besides questioning the tribal status of Kharkongor, had alleged that he has a PGDM degree from IIM Calcutta and it cannot be treated as MBA with specialisation in finance, and thus he did not have the qualifications to be appointed as Director (Finance).
Coincidently, the complaint made by Assam MP Rajen Gohain, who is the current minister of state for railways, on February 24 this year had also stated that the PGDM degree from IIM Calcutta possessed by Kharkongor is not equivalent to MBA (Finance), which was the necessary qualification for his appointment as Director (Finance) in 2010.
Following this, the Union Ministry of Power had entrusted the matter to be investigated by Verma, who was the CVO then.
After the probe and examining the call detail records (CDRs) of Rabha and Kalita, Verma found that Kharkongor’s ST status was genuine after due confirmation from the East Khasi Hills Deputy Commissioner and traditional heads. The probe did not find any anomalies in the degree possessed by Kharkongor.
The final report by Verma regarding the false complaints against West Kharkongor was sent on May 19 last year and it provided compelling materials for acting against Borgohain.
After more than three-and-a-half months, on September 6 last year, the Ministry of Personnel had sought authentication of CDRs from which the analysed result was derived and Verma had provided the authentication to the CVO, NEEPCO, on September 20.
The analysis of CDRs of Rabha and Kalita obtained by Verma from the respective mobile service providers through the Assam Police had confirmed that Borgohain was constantly in touch with both these persons to engineer the false complaints against Kharkongor.
Moreover, Verma had also sent the true copies of documents showing the contact between Assam MP Rajen Gohain and Borgohain, together with the complaints of the MP against Kharkongor to the Union Power Ministry and others.