NEW DELHI (TrustLaw) – According to global corruption watchdog, Transparency International, corruption in India is endemic and present in most sectors of society.
Here are six major corruption scandals involving different sectors of society which have hit the headlines:
SPORTS: The head of India's $4 billion cricket league, Lalit Modi, was suspended from his post in April following graft allegations in a scandal that has also ensnared politicians. Tax authorities are currently probing the three-year-old Indian Premier League, the game's most lucrative tournament, after a junior government minister resigned following allegations of improper influence. While Modi has not been formally charged and denies any wrongdoing, newspapers have said authorities are investigating reports of improprieties in bidding for teams and in negotiating television broadcast rights for the matches.
HEALTH: In January 2008, the World Bank said it had uncovered "serious incidents" of corruption in a review of five health projects in India. A probe by the Bretton Woods institution found there were "unacceptable indicators of fraud and corruption" in bank-funded projects for HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. Funding for the projects, which were launched between 1997 and 2003, totalled over $500 million. The bank review found evidence of bid rigging and other forms of procurement fraud as well as corruption and shoddy auditing.
DEFENCE: The Bofors case has been one of the highest-profile and longest-running criminal investigations in India. In the 1980’s, the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and several other officials were accused of receiving kickbacks from Swedish arms manufacturer AB Bofors for winning a bid to supply India with 400 howitzers. The scale of the corruption was far worse than any that India had seen before, and directly led to the defeat of Gandhi's ruling Indian National Congress party in the November 1989 general elections.
JUDICIARY: In July 2008, an investigation found 36 judges were guilty of receiving gifts bought with money embezzled from the court treasury in Ghaziabad, a satellite town on the outskirts of the capital. Tens of millions of rupees were siphoned off from the provident funds of employees by the treasury officer who illegally spent the money on furniture, crockery, mobiles, laptops, rail tickets, taxi fares and other items for the judges.
POLITICS: In November 2009, Madhu Koda, the former chief minister of the eastern state of Jharkhand, was arrested in connection with a corruption investigation. Koda is accused of possessing assets disproportionate with his income and for alleged money laundering. He is alleged to have laundered millions of rupees from public coffers during his stint as chief minister of Jharkhand between 2006 and 2008.
CORPORATE: In January 2009, Ramalinga Raju, chairman and founder of India's fourth-largest software company Satyam Computer Services, resigned after revealing years of accounting fraud in the country’s biggest corporate fraud. Raju admitted about $1 billion, or 94 percent of the cash on the company's books was fictitious. "What started as a marginal gap between actual operating profits and the one reflected in the books of accounts continued to grow over the years," said Raju. "It was like riding a tiger, not knowing how to get off without being eaten."
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