How J&K BOSE official duped MHA through DD

Being Govt employee, she impersonated as ‘Pvt Producer’; MHA funds worth Rs 10.80 lakh landed in her business and salary accounts

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

SRINAGAR, Sep 24: With the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) launching an inquiry into Doordarshan money transactions in over a dozen bank accounts of the attached Director of Srinagar station, Shami Shair, and her relatives, it has dramatically surfaced that her niece, Naila Neelofar, has been granted union Home Ministry’s counter-propaganda serial for approved budget of Rs 24 lakhs despite being a regular employee of the Government of Jammu and Kashmir.

Directorate General of Doordarshan has transferred Ministry of Home Affairs funds worth Rs 10.80 lakh to Naila Neelofar’s illegal business account of M/S Aabid Films at New Theed branch of Jammu and Kashmir Bank Ltd through RTGS on 3-4-2012 out of which she further shifted an amount of Rs 10.50 lakh to her old salary account at J&K Bank branch, Lal Mandi. The money kept shuttling between two of her three bank accounts. However, none of the accounts operated by her had been seized till late tonight.

Authoritative sources, associated with the CBI investigation into the DDK Srinagar bunglings, revealed exclusively to Early Times that one Naila Neelofar, who is a regular government employee and working as Academic Officer (English) at J&K State Board of School Education (BOSE) since 2005, applied for a counter-propaganda programme serial with Ministry of Home Affairs in New Delhi in the year 2010-11.  She fraudulently described herself a “Private Producer” and claimed to be competent to make a programme series out of the funds MHA had reserved for fighting Pakistan’s propaganda on Kashmir.

With the recommendations of Joint Secretary incharge J&K, MHA recommended her proposal to Directorate General of Doordarshan. This series of 12 episodes, with the approved budget of Rs 2 lakh for each episode, was ultimately sanctioned for total budget of Rs 24 lakhs through File No: 13/35/2010-KC in the name of the applicant, Ms Naila Neelofar, and her illegal banner M/S Aabid Films.

According to sources, former Director of DDK Srinagar, Shami Shair, who happens to be the real sister of Naila Neelofar’s mother, and former Deputy Director General incharge Kashir Channel, Ms Ananya Bannerjee, got the proposal sanctioned so quickly that the applicant’s antecedents were not got verified through Intelligence Bureau (IB). Almost all other applicant private producers were subjected to IB’s verification. Known for her friendship with Mrs Shair, Ms Bannerjee was a member of the committee that approved Naila’s proposal. Interestingly, after her retirement from DD’s service, she was engaged as a ‘Consultant’ by MHA last year.

Sources said that with the help of Mrs Shair and Ms Bannerjee, Naila Neelofar executed an agreement with DD (Kashir Channel). Subsequently, on 3-4-2012, DD released an advance payment of Rs 10,80,000 which was transferred through RTGS to current account No: 1243010100000034 of J&K Bank, branch New Theed, operated by “Naila Neelofar D/o Ali Mohammad Dalkaw Chandpora Harwan” despite her being an officer in the state Government.

Out of this, she withdrew an amount of Rs 10,40,000 by cheque No: 3510465 on 6-4-2012 and later deposited an amount of Rs 10,50,000 in her old salary account No: 0365040100013481 at J&K Bank, branch Lal Mandi, that continues runs in the name of “Naila Neelofar D/o Prof Ali Mohammad Dalkaw”even after BOSE shifted its headquarters to the new complex at Bemina.

After her office shifted to Bemina, she opened a fresh salary account, No: 0547040100000050, at J&K Bank, branch BOSE Bemina, in which BOSE has been regularly depositing her monthly salary. This third account runs in the name of “Naila Neelofar W/o Aijaz Ul Haque R/o Friends Colony Baghat Barzulla”.  

Current year’s transactions in Naila Neelofar’s illegal business account, at J&K Bank branch New Theed, indicate that one Neelofar Shair has transferred an amount of Rs 1,50,000 in it on 31-1-2012 and cash worth Rs 200,000 has been deposited in it on 1-2-2012. After huge amounts of money shuttled between her two accounts [New Theed and Lal Mandi], balance of over Rs 11 Lakh is still in her business account [1243010100000034 New Theed].

While the status of Naila Neelofar’s DD production is still being ascertained, other skeletons have begun to come out the cupboard. Private producer, Tarouq Loulpuri, who himself figures among the MHA-DD beneficiaries list of 23 persons, has obtained information about the MHA-sponsored programmes through an RTI application. He subsequently filed another RTI applicant with BOSE in Srinagar as also a written complaint, asking how a regular government employee had been allowed to operate business with DD in violation of Service Rules. He sought immediate inquiry and action, that includes termination of services for breach of trust and conduct, against Ms Naila Neelofar in May this year.

Chairman BOSE, Dr Sheikh Bashir Ahmad, ordered an inquiry immediately. He constituted a 2-member committee, comprising Director Academics Malik Ghulam Hassan and Assistant Secretary Examinations (Kashmir) Farooq Ahmad Khan. The panel issued charge sheet under No: F(Chrge Sht./Prb)-12 dated 27-6-2012, asking Academic Officer (English) Ms Naila to explain her position.

In her reply No: F(Reply/A/O-Eng)B/KD/12 dated 2-7-2012, Ms Naila categorically denied the charge that she had ever applied for or obtained a DD project for production (business). She claimed that she was simply a scriptwriter of the production for which she had applied for permission. “The man (Mr Loulpuri) has made me a soft target as he wanted to settle scores with my relative Smt Shami Shair, the programme head of Doordarshan. I refute it outright. You can scrutinize the accounts for verification”, she wrote to Director Academics in her reply to the charge sheet.

“This that I have deceived Doordarshan authorities by presenting myself as a ‘private producer’ is again the figment of his imagination. Different projects have their sets of rules. This year also concepts were invited. Working people in govt, semi-govt, autonomous private sectors and private TV channels were debarred from applying as it was given in writing that the person is not working anywhere. Upholding the sanctity of the same, I did not apply”, she claimed in the conclusion of her reply, three months after secretly receiving an amount of Rs 10.80 Lakh from DD in her business account and just 8 days before she made a transaction of Rs 10.50 Lakh of the same money.

Interestingly, on 7-7-2012, complainant Tarouq Loulpuri submitted another application to BOSE and withdrew his allegations against Ms Naila. He gave it in writing that his charges were “false”. Investigators feel that Mr Loulpuri withdrew his complaint after Ms Naila, alongwith her aunt, Mrs Shair, approached him and assured him that his frozen payments of “in-house programmes” pending with DDK Srinagar would be released soon.

Did the matter end up in a compromise between Mr Loulpuri, Ms Naila and Mrs Shair? “Not at all”, Chairman BOSE, Dr Bashir asserted.

“Even after Mr Loulapuri withdrew his complaint, we wrote a letter to Director General of DD, requesting him to communicate whether any DD serial had been allotted in the name of Ms Naila Neelofar. We made it clear in the letter that Ms Naila was a regular employee of the state government who was working as Academic Officer (English) with BOSE for the last seven years. We did not receive ant reply from DD Doordarshan in the last over two months. Even our reminders did not yield anything”, Chairman BOSE told Early Times.

He said that even in absence of response from DD, BOSE had learned with substantive evidence that Ms Naila had applied for and obtained the business project from DD as a private producer. “We are slapping a fresh charge sheet on her. In case she fails to reply or suppresses the facts again, we will place her under suspension and initiate necessary action under rules”, Dr Bashir said.

Efforts to get a reaction from Ms Naila and Mrs Shair failed as their mobile phones were continuously switched off. [With the assurance that we will carry it verbatim, Early Times, hereby, requests them both to make their reaction available to the facts given hereinabove in its e-mail times.early@gmail.com so that neither of them gets condemned unheard.

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CBI’s own men under scanner

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

SRINAGAR, Sep 24: Well-placed sources revealed that while investigating charges of large scale corruption against Doordarshan officials in Srinagar and Jammu, CBI was also examining how some former officials of the investigating agency had “either delayed or buried” inquiries against two of the former DD officials, namely Mahesh Chopra in 2007-10 and Rafeeq Masoodi in 2008-11.

While as complaints against Mr Chopra had been reportedly hushed up, two FIRs were registered by CBI against Masoodi while he functioned as Director DDK Srinagar. Charges were established in both but one was reportedly deferred and another closed as ‘not established’.

CBI is now scrutinizing the conduct and role of some of its former officials who maintained a close liaison, first with Masoodi and later with Mrs Shami Shair. Even the matter of a mysterious fire at DDK Srinagar was brushed under the carpet.

According to sources, it was being looked into as to how a particular Inspector managed his posting back to Srinagar immediately after a CBI director---who had written in his APRs that the official be not posted in Srinagar---had retired.

Sources said that it was because of similar facts that CBI directorate in New Delhi maintained tight secrecy and did not disclose things to anybody in Jammu or Srinagar till SSP of Jammu office arranged a raid on DDK Srinagar last week.

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