CBI files FIR against former disinvestment secretary Pradeep Baijal for selling Udaipur hotel cheap

NEW DELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has lodged a corruption case against former disinvestment secretary Pradeep Baijal on Thursday without seeking any clarifications from Baijal or his then political boss, the disinvestment minister Arun Shourie, during a Preliminary Enquiry that lasted four months.

The CBI FIR accused Baijal of causing a Rs 143.48-crore loss to the government in the disinvestment of a Udaipur’s Laxmi Vilas Palace Hotel 12 years back. Baijal, the former chief of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) and a veteran bureaucrat, was however unaware of the registration of the FIR till 6 pm and said he had learnt of the same after this reporter called him for a reaction.

“I was in the intensive care unit (ICU) for a bypass operation when CBI officials had telephoned me around four months back saying they wanted to speak to me about some Udaipur hotel disinvestment matter. My wife took the call and informed them that I am in ICU. They never came to speak to me after that and now they have lodged an FIR. I know nothing about this,” a rather shocked Baijal told ET.

Shourie, who was the disinvestment minister in 2001-02 when this Udaipur hotel was sold, said he did not remember any specifics of the case but said he was puzzled by CBI’s move.

“I cannot understand what the CBI has done. All I can say that is that any decision on disinvestment was cleared by the Cabinet Committee on Disinvestment which was headed by the Prime Minister. Most hotels disinvested by the government then were making losses,” Shourie told ET.

ET has learnt that the Cabinet Committee on Disinvestment in a meeting on February 5, 2002, approved of the disinvestment of Laxmi Vilas Palace Hotel at Udaipur and the highest bidder was Bharat Hotels at a price of Rs 7.52 crore. CBI, however, blames only Baijal for what it says was an undervalued sale of the ITDC property.

“The hotel spread in 29 acres of prime location land with 54 rooms with all accessories was first drastically undervalued and then sold/disinvested to Bharat Hotels at a price of Rs 7.52 crore. However, as per then DLC rates of land in which the said hotel situated was allegedly Rs 151 crore and in this way, an alleged loss of Rs 143.48 crore was caused to the ITDC,” the CBI statement said. It adds “the authorised representative” of Bharat Hotels had been mentioned as accused in the FIR but not named.

Jyotsna Suri is the chief managing director of Bharat Hotels.

The CBI statement also says that four places in New Delhi and Mumbai were raided on Thursday and “incriminating documents” recovered. Baijal, however, told ET that no searches had been conducted at his residence in Noida.

“CBI had last spoken to me about six months back but that was regarding the sale of Hindustan Zinc to Sterlite Opportunities & Ventures Ltd in 2002. I do not know the fate of that case as well,” Baijal said. CBI had also questioned Shourie in that matter.