Author: Narendra Kaushik
Publication: Mid-Day
Date: March 27, 2001
The Central Bureau of Investigation
(CBI) is tightening the noose around Sonia Gandhi's private secretary Vincent
George with the discovery of some properties in the United States of America.
These properties are in the name of his close relatives.
Top sleuths in the investigative
agency told MID-DAY that George's brother-in-law Thomas Zakaria owns some
premises in New York's posh Empire State Building. Zakaria is the same
person who, according to George, had sent him dollar gifts amounting to
Rs 3.83 crore between November 1991 and November 1999.
George has failed to explain Zakaria's
source of income despite having been grilled by the CBI five times so fan
The bureau has charged George with
accumulating property worth Rs 308 crore (Rs 1.5 crore in his 16 bank accounts
and properties worth Rs 1.58 crore) between November 1984 and December
1990 when he was a public servant. His assets are hugely disproportionate
to his known sources of income because during his government job, he was
being paid (according to his admission) a meagre salary of Rs 5,000 per
month.
The investigators suspect that Zakaria
could just be a front for George. They strongly feel that some hawala operator
had sent the dollar gifts. The CBI will be sending letter rogatories to
US to find out about the person who sent the dollar gifts and Zakaria's
business. It might take some time as the rogatories are sent through the
court.
George has declared his properties
in his income tax returns. But that in no case absolves him of the allegation
that he accumulated the wealth by misusing his official position. The CBI
has found no truth in his claim that he earned the wealth from two companies
Lilliens Exports and Diana Agencies.
A senior sleuth told MID-DAY that
the companies existed only in income tax returns. "There is no board (name
plate), no infrastructure, no employees, no production, no ledgers," he
said. Lily, George's wife who owned the two companies, could give no satisfactory
explanation to the CBI during the interrogation.
George has refused to give Zakaria's
social security number (bank account) to the CBI on the ground that it
was a 'private and personal matter'. The accounts records can clear whether
the dollar gift cheques were sent by him or not. The CBI will soon collect
original papers of his investment from the bank.
An account in the name of George's
minor daughter alone has liquid cash of Rs 35 lakh.
According to the first information
report, George has several bungalows, shops and agricultural land in Delhi,
Bangalore, Chennai. Total paper value of these have been put at Rs 1.58
crore. The sleuths fear that it may be only a tip of an iceberg.
