It took just 118 days in 2012 for the Ashok Gehlot Government to facilitate an allegedly illegal transfer of a 1,000-hectare limestone mine from a private limited company, owned by former Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot’s relatives to UltraTech Cement Ltd.
On its part, UltraTech shelled out ₹160 crore to own this mine holding limestone deposits worth about ₹1,000 crore.
On August 7, the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) of Rajasthan had registered an FIR alleging fraud and corruption under Section 13 (1-D), 13 (2), Prevention of Corruption Act, 1998 and Sections 420, 120B of the IPC against three UltraTech officials — Kailash Chandra Birla (Chief Financial Officer), Rahul Mohnot (Unit Head-White Cement) and Mukesh Babu Agrawal (the then Executive President-Corporate Finance Division) — and four Gehlot “kin” — Ramvallabh Chauhan, Ramesh Chauhan, Suresh Chauhan and Ramavtar Chauhan.
The other accused include the director and other officials of the Rajasthan Government’s mining department, Shankar Dutt Sharma, Additional Superintendent of Police, ACB, told
The story begins in March 26, 2012, when the Registrar of Companies incorporated the Jodhpur-registered Gotan Limestone Khanij Udyog Pvt Ltd (GLKUPL). Two days later (March 28, 2012), its earlier avatar, a partnership firm, Gotan Limestone Khanij Udyog (GLKU), had applied to the Rajasthan Mining Department to transfer its 10 sq km of leased land to the new firm (GLKUPL) it had floated.
The State Government had originally leased out land to GLKU in 1984 near Dhanapa village of Nagaur district.
The Chauhans were its four equal-partner directors, and had ownership rights of the limestone mine, which was renewed for a 30-year-period from April 8, 1994 to April 7, 2024. For its mutation, the Chauhans claimed they wanted this transfer of land for “development of mining”.
While Ramvallabh Chauhan applied to the Mining Department on March 28, 2012, the affidavit — on stamp paper purchased on March 23 — was notarised only on March 31. The same was the case with the other directors.
One of the stamp papers was bought on March 31— implying the partners had applied before submitting their notarised affidavits. Just four days later, on April 2, 2012, the Mining Department accepted the Chauhans’ plea for transfer of mining land to their new private limited firm and fixed an annual lease rent of ₹1,42,86224.
Directors resignOn July 23, 2012, GLKUPL inducted three new directors from UltraTech Cement; the same day, the Chauhans resigned from the directorship of their own newly-formed company, by selling 100 per cent shares to the Aditya Birla Group company.
A day later, in its filing with the Bombay Stock Exchange, UltraTech said: “The company has signed an agreement with the shareholders of Gotan Limestone Khanij Udyog Pvt Ltd, Rajasthan, to acquire 100 per cent equity shares of GKUPL. With this acquisition, GKUPL has become a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Company.” It is now one of the five wholly-owned subsidiaries of UltraTech. In its annual report for 2012-13, UltraTech Cement said it paid ₹160 crore to buy 20 lakh equity shares of the acquired company.
Mining norms in Rajasthan are strictly against complete transfer of stake without consent of the State Government. There have been cases in which the lease to the principal leaseholder was cancelled. For instance, in a similar case, the State Government had not only cancelled the lease but had taken possession of land from Banswara-based miner Fakhruddin Ali. Last week, when Ali approached the Rajasthan High Court against this “double standard”, Assistant Advocate-General Anurag Sharma assured the court of legal action against the accused. The ACB took cognisance of the case on May 2, 2014, when BJP MP Kirit Somaiya lodged a written complaint.
It took the ACB three months to conduct an inquiry and register a case, Sharma said, adding the report had been submitted to the Director-General of Police (DGP) for further action.
Illegal transferInterestingly, GLKU had earlier tried to illegally transfer the lease of two sq km of the said mining land to JK White Cement, which was later cancelled by the State Government.
“Even though the Chauhans knew they could not transfer this land, nor could UltraTech buy it, they went ahead with it and, using political connections, got it executed”, Somaiya said.
Another aspect of the case is that even during pendency of the JK White Cement case (its lease was cancelled only on September 5, 2012), the Chauhans went ahead on their deal with UltraTech.