CBI DIG’s kin gets windfall from Director DD

Private producer died under stress after Masoodi refused to return him ‘advance commission’ of Rs 20 Lakh

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

SRINAGAR, Sep 1: Nobody knows whether it is a fact or fiction. But, in an attempt to impress his subordinate officials and private producers with his strong political and bureaucratic clout, Director of Doordarshan Kendra (DDK) Srinagar, Dr Rafeeq Masoodi, has been telling everybody around that two kindhearted Kashmiris got him off the hook in two software scandals investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in 2009 and 2010. He has been proudly mentioning the names of the Union Minister of Health, Ghulam Nabi Azad, and an IPS officer, Javed Mujtaba Gilani. Gilani has maintained high reputation and integrity all through his career in J&K cadre since 1995. He is currently on Central deputation and posted as a Deputy Inspector General (DIG) in the CBI at New Delhi.

DIG’s brother, Riyaz Gilani, has been working as a private producer with DDK Srinagar with a footing of his own. Like hundreds of fellow producers, Riyaz suffered a slump in his business in the last three years. Immediately after CBI registered case FIR No: 02/A/2009/CBI/Sgr against Director DDK Srinagar, Dr Rafeeq Masoodi and others, Riyaz began delivering scores of tapes at the DD official’s chambers. While Srinagar-based establishment of the CBI launched investigation into Rs 5 Crore morning show scandal, Masoodi clandestinely allotted hundreds of music and fiction programmes to the DIG’s brother.

In the next few months, two of Masoodi’s subordinate officials---Producer of the controversial breakfast show “Subhai Subhai”,Ghulam Hassan Dar, and his assistant, Bashir Ahmed Mir---are framed but the key accused, Rafeeq Masoodi, gets a clean chit from the CBI. He has been privately as well as publicly expressing his gratitude to Azad and the Kashmiri DIG in the CBI. If he is to be believed, he is in near future being exonerated by the CBI also in Producer Kausar Parveen’s scandals in the Music Section of DDK Srinagar.

It remains a matter of investigation whether the DIG really influenced the investigation into Masoodi’s favour or the IPS officer’s brother settled things with the DD official of his own. But, records at DDK Srinagar indicate a remarkable upswing in the favours showered on Riyaz Gilani since the day CBI launched its investigation.

Insiders revealed to Early Times that as many as 80 music programmes of in-house category, allotted to Riyaz Gilani in the name of a number of his relatives, have been telecast by DDK Srinagar. Even as seniormost producers like Zamir Ashai and Bashir Dada are subjected to the humiliation of shuttling from one table to another for petty packages of 10-episode, payment has been generously released to almost all the programmes acquired from Gilani. Entire job of pleasing Gilani has been confidentially entrusted to Deputy Director Shami Shayir.

While Masoodi has been pleading bankruptcy of his station to seniormost private producers, claiming that there were no funds available, Riyaz Gilani was asked to shoot and complete the production of 26-episode Urdu fiction serial “Aur Dard Badhta Gaya”. Masoodi appointed Deputy Director, Shami Shayir, as the Producer for the serial. Budget of Rs 70,000 was approved by Masoodi for each episode of the drama serial. Shooting was clandestinely completed in the turbulent month of July. Since last month, Riyaz Gilani’s production has been on the air on “war footing basis”. It runs in the evening on weekends.

Insiders revealed with evidence that this kind of a “special arrangement” was restricted to few of Dr Masoodi’s benefactors as also his exceptional favourites like the young singing sensation, Shazia Bashir, who has been clandestinely allotted another windfall of 39 episodes at an exorbitant budget. This all, much to the chagrin of jobless private producers like Zamir and Dada who have given their blood and sweat to DD in the worst of times in Kashmir for over 30 years.

Sources revealed that through the DDK Producer, Ghulam Hassan Dar, Masoodi had roped in a group of six private producers in the beginning of 2009. As reported in yesterday’s edition of this newspaper, as many as 9,591 segments were procured clandestinely at the rate of Rs 5,000 per segment from these private producers. On a written complaint, CBI conducted a raid and seized all the 1914 tapes. Huge amounts of money were drawn in the first installment but the senior DDK official grabbed the lion’s share with an assurance of releasing more than Rs 2 Crore to the beneficiary private producers.

Rs 20 Lakh were thus extorted from just one private producer, namely Syed Gulzar Rizvi of Dadina, Budgam. When Rizvi felt that no more payments were likely to be released after registration of the FIR and seizure of the tapes by the CBI, be began demanding the “advance commission” back. In addition to scores of SMSs, more than 100 calls were found to have exchanged between the DDK official and the poor private producer in just two months of December 2009 and January 2010. The money was never returned to him.

Under tremendous stress, 38-year-old post-graduate in Journalism and Mass Communication, Rizvi died at his home during the night intervening February 8th and 9th, 2010.

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