CHENNAI: Cases filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation against former Chairman of Chennai Port Trust K Suresh and two other officials for allegedly causing a loss of Rs 20 crore to the Port Trust in August 2009 have not reached their logical conclusion due to delay the central government in given the sanction to prosecute them.
According to the CBI website, the sanction for prosecution against K Suresh (former chairman of ChPT and now principal secretary, Public Undertaking & Mining Corporation in Madhya Pradesh), G J Rao (then deputy chairman of ChPT and now chairman of Paradip Port Trust) and M K Sinha, Deputy Conservator of ChPT, were pending with the central government since November 16 last year.
While the permission to prosecute Suresh must come from the Department of Personnel and Training, which comes under the watch of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, it is the Ministry of Shipping, headed by G K Vasan, that must deal with Rao and Sinha.
The CBI, after conducting extensive raids in August 2009, had registered cases against them under different sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 for causing a loss of Rs 20 crore to the Chennai Port Trust by allegedly entering into a criminal conspiracy with a Singapore firm. The officials were accused of abusing their official position to allot a berth in the Chennai Port on April 11, 2007 to a non-functional ship, M V San Giorgio, which had to be towed in to the harbour.
Besides recovering gold bars from Suresh’s bank lockers, CBI officials had seized documents of properties and a huge bank balance totalling Rs 2.36 crore (including $6,443) from his official residence.
