Assam: A Flyover Inauguration, a Tender and a Web of Companies Connected to CM’s Family

This report is a collaboration between The Wire and The Crosscurrent.

Guwahati: On November 4, 2021, Diwali, Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma inaugurated a two-lane flyover in the state capital, Guwahati. The razzmatazz event received a lot of media attention.

Among those present were Atul Bora, a minister in the Himanta government and president of the BJP-ally Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), and Bodo leader and state assembly speaker Biswajit Daimary.

Local news organisations couldn’t stop talking about the 1.2-km-long flyover bridging the state secretariat (Janata Bhawan) and the busy Down Town Hospital and Supermarket areas on the city’s arterial G.S. Road. An additional reason for the local media’s attention was that unlike other flyovers crisscrossing Guwahati, this one featured colourful graffiti showcasing local life.

A visibly happy Himanta declared to those gathered that the Rs 127 crore flyover had been completed before the official deadline. “The completion of the work in 22 months against the scheduled 36 months reflects our government’s utmost effort to speed up infrastructure growth,” said the chief minister.

Terming Guwahati the gateway to ASEAN nations, the Congress leader-turned BJP chief minister said under his leadership, the state government has committed to stick to deadlines on infrastructure projects to evade cost overruns, and also give people a taste of ‘development’.

Glad to inaugurate the new ₹127-cr flyover at Dispur-Supermarket in Guwahati which is expected to significantly reduce traffic snarls in the area.
Completion of the work in 22 months against scheduled 36 months reflects our Govt’s utmost effort to speed up infrastructure growth. pic.twitter.com/AxvXwpTZnd

— Himanta Biswa Sarma (@himantabiswa) November 4, 2021

But RTI replies around this inauguration event accessed by The Crosscurrent and The Wire paint a somewhat different picture. The documents prove that even standard operational procedures for government contracts were not followed while organising the event.

In addition, the event was made possible by spending a sizeable sum of public money. This expenditure may have ended up favouring a close business associate of the chief minister’s immediate family. Himanta also happens to be the public works department (PWD) minister, and this department had floated the tender for organising the inauguration event.

Contract after the event

RTI replies from the Himanta administration reveal that while the mega inaugural ceremony was held on November 4, 2021, the Assam state authorities issued tenders in newspapers seeking bids from local contractors to carry out preparatory work for the flyover only five months later.

The advertisement was published in local dailies on March 9, 2022 – more than four months after the event on November 5, 2021. One such newspaper advertisement put out by the Territorial Roads Division of the PWD can be seen here.

The March 9 advertisement sought bids for the flyover inaugural event within 15 days; the last date to receive bids was March 18, 2022. The post-dated work orders were issued on May 2, 2022.

As per details shared through an RTI reply with The Crosscurrent, this tender (already flouting due process) received replies from two Guwahati-based business houses – M/s JMK Construction and Supplier and Dreams A-Maze – as well as from a contractor, Anjan Sarma. In a strange coincidence, the address cited by all three bidders was from the same area – Kamakhya Dham, Guwahati.

Yet another notable fact is that the individual bidder – Anjan Sarma – and the owners of the two other entities – Jugananda Sarma (JMC Construction) and Bhaskar Sarma (Dream A-Maze) – are in fact business associates. The three are co-directors of another business entity: M/S Assam Chemists Distributors Pvt. Ltd.

On March 30 morning, The Wire emailed the chief engineer of the state PWD to ask why the tender was released five months after the work was completed, as reflected in the RTI reply and also the newspaper advertisements. This article will be updated once a response is received.

How was the money spent?

According to RTI replies, the PWD granted the post-dated work to M/S Dream A-Maze. The firm is owned by Guwahati-based Bhaskar Sarma, who, as explained below, has links to businesses involving the chief minister’s immediate family. In all, three work orders were issued to Bhaskar’s firm by the PWD ministry.

Work orders accessed by The Wire and The Crosscurrent show that Bhaskar’s firm was paid Rs 45,94,657 for just temporary arrangements to inaugurate a flyover. A break-up of the sum, as per the work orders signed by the executive engineer of the Dispur Territorial Roads Division of the PWD, was as follows:

• Rs 13,35,731 was allocated for “decoration and branding of rotaries in front of Janata Bhawan and at Last Gate in connection with the inaugural function of flyover at Supermarket Intersection”;
• Rs 14,32,950 for “flyover beautification” with flex boards displaying gamusas (traditional scarves) of different tribes of the state and the chief minister’s image, in addition to putting colourful cloth on the entire railing of the flyover; and
• Rs 18,25,886 to put up temporary gates on the three openings of the flyover.

A glance at the government’s post-dated newspaper advertisement further showed that of the amount Rs 13,35,731 for decoration and branding, nearly half of it – Rs 6,50, 914 – was allocated for embellishing the area with tribal gamusas. Of the remaining amount, Rs 59,040 was to be used for decoration with bamboo items; Rs 1,33,282 for beautification with artificial grass; Rs 4,13,280 for decorative lights; and Rs 79,212 for wiring to install a generator for the lights for the inauguration.

A sum of Rs 18,25,886 included expenditure for another generator and wiring work (for Rs 1,18,818) at the flyover and 300 plants and flower pots rented for seven days (for Rs 1,54,980). The rest of this amount was to put towards LED lights at the three entry and exit points for the same duration.

The ‘beautification’ sum, Rs 14, 32,950, to Dream A-Maze was for temporarily putting up cloth on the flyover fencing for Rs 6,64,200. The other Rs 7,68,750 went towards a flag pole, flexi boards with the chief minister’s image and pictures of gamusas of different tribes, etc.

The obvious question, of course, is why the tender was issued five months after the event had already taken place, organised by a ministry headed by the chief minister. Did the state PWD carry out the post-dated tendering process to administrative tick boxes? Or was it trying to protect someone involved?

In an earlier RTI-based investigation, The Wire and The Crosscurrent had shown how the chief minister’s immediate family’s business partners succeeded in extracting urgent work orders (by bypassing the tendering process) worth crores to carry out COVID-19-related procurement at a much higher rate from the state health department. This was while Himanta was the health minister in the Sarbananda Sonowal government.

The recent RTI replies from the PWD to The Crosscurrent show that a sum of Rs 45,94,657 was sanctioned to the Bhaskar Sarma owned-firm on November 1, 2022.

Who is Bhaskar Sarma?

Guwahati-based Bhaskar is a significant presence across several businesses involving Himanta’s immediate family.

The workings of a company unrelated to the flyover matter – the Chandmari Tea Company – reveal a certain method to this madness, and highlight how Bhaskar is a key node across business interests of the chief minister’s immediate family members.

Details received by us from the Union Ministry of Corporate Affairs show that the Chandmari Tea Company has been in existence since March 29, 1956. Since 1968, the company had three directors – Pranab Barua, Pradip Barua and Prabal Kumar Barua. The Chandmari Tea Company owns one of the largest tea estates in Assam, the Chandmari Tea Estate. Covering an area of 5,000 hectares, the estate is located in the Makum area of Tinsukia district in Upper Assam.

As per September 18, 2014 records of the ministry analysed by The Wire and The Crosscurrent, the three directors of the Chandmari Tea Company were replaced by one Dindayal Verma and Babita Verma besides Bhaskar. The March 31, 2015 documents shows shares worth Rs 5,15,000 against Dindayal Verma, Rs 1,98,300 worth of shares against Babita Verma and Rs 1,86,700 worth shares to one Mohit Verma. Bhaskar was shown owning shares in the Chandmari Tea Company worth Rs 1,42,500. Additionally, a corporate entity, DS Graha Nirman Private Limited, was shown owning shares worth Rs 4,57,500. The March 31, 2015 balance sheet of the Chandmari Tea Company showed DS Graha Nirman owning 30.50% shares of the company while Bhaskar owned 9.50% shares, Dindayal Verma 34.33% shares, Babita Verma 13.22% and Mohit Verma 12.45% shares.

However, as per the latest government documents (as of September 30, 2022), Bhaskar had stepped down as a director of the Chandmari Tea Company, leaving just Dindayal Verma and Babita Verma as its directors. However, Bhaskar continues to hold shares in the company along with the Vermas and DS Graha Nirman Pvt. Ltd.

The ministry’s records showed that DS Graha Nirman Pvt. Ltd. is located in Kolkata’s Bou Bazar area – Premises No. 75, first floor, Metcalfe Street, Bou Bazar, Kolkata. After looking at the company’s latest documents dating March 31, 2020 received from the ministry, we find that the chief minister’s mother-in-law, Meena Bhuyan, owns 19.25% shares in it. Since DS Graha Nirman Pvt. Ltd. has Rs 4,57,500 worth of shares in the Chandmari Tea Company, the tea garden owned by the Chandmari Tea Company can be seen to have a direct link to the chief minister’s family.

Interestingly, one of the former directors of DS Graha Nirman was the chief minister’s mother, Mrinalini Devi. As per ministry details, the company was formed in 2005 with two directors – Dilip Kumar Panti and Sawan Kumar Barjatya. The chief minister’s mother became its director on January 6, 2006. Yet another close aide of the chief minister and his wife Riniki Bhuyan Sarma, Ranjit Bhattacharjee, also became its director around the same time, replacing Panti and Barjatya.

On November 15, 2010, Bhattacharjee stepped down from the post – but only to be replaced by Bhaskar. So, until Bhaskar resigned from the director’s position in the Chandmari Tea Company, he was a director of both these entities.

On March 30 morning, The Wire wrote to Bhaskar Sarma at the official email of DS Graha Nirman Pvt Ltd to ask the following questions:

1. Is the address of DS Graha Nirman Pvt Ltd cited in the Ministry of Corporate Affairs documents – 75 First Floor, Metcalfe Street, Bou Bazar, Kolkata – still the official address of the company?
2. Who is the chief operating office/managing director of the company? If you can share the person’s contact details please.

No reply has been received at the time of publication. The article will be updated if Bhaskar replies.

A curious pattern: Three companies with common investors?

Bhattacharyya’s name had come up in an earlier investigative report by The Wire and The Crosscurrent. Based on public records, we had demonstrated the involvement of a company, RBS Realtors (now Vasistha Realtors), in illegal ownership of the government’s ceiling land in the commercially buoyant North Guwahati. RBS Realtors was co-founded by the chief minister’s wife Riniki with Bhattacharjee in 2006. Soon, as many as 17 companies based out of Kolkata’s infamous Bara Bazar area began to invest in RBS Realtors to the tune of Rs 2,17,45,000, according to documents submitted to the Union corporate ministry.

In 2009, while Bhattacharjee continued to be a director of RBS Realtors, Riniki stepped down to make way for Ashok Dhanuka, a Guwahati-based businessman seen as close to the chief minister. Soon, those Kolkata-based shareholders began transferring their shares to Bhaskar, his wife Jina Sarma,his  brother Sanjiv Sarma, his father-in-law Madan Mohan Sarma and some of his other family members. Riniki’s maternal uncle Guna Tamuli Phukan also came in as a shareholder.

After the new shareholders stepped in, RBS Realtors applied for a name change – to Vasistha Realtors. In 2017, ministry records showed 23.61% of Rs 100 value shares were transferred to the chief minister mother-in-law Meena Bhuyan by her brother Guna Tamuli Phukan. On September 19, 2019, barely a fortnight after the chief minister’s son Nandil Biswa Sarma became 18 years of age, Meena Bhuyan’s shares were transferred to him, thus making him the majority shareholder. The rest of the shares of RBS Realtors (now Vasistha Realtors) have remained with Bhaskar and his family.

Bhaskar is also a founder director of yet another company – Pride East Entertainment Pvt Ltd. The other directors of the company are the chief minister’s wife Riniki, son Nandil and daughter Sukanya. Pride East Entertainment is the owner of the Guwahati-based news channels NewsLive and NorthEast Live.

The Wire and The Crosscurrent’s earlier reports had also highlighted that the chief minister’s wife was the director of yet another company, Padmavati Traders Pvt. Ltd. along with his now late father, Kailash Nath Sarma. The company’s name had first featured in Himanta’s affidavit filed with the Election Commission of India before the 2016 assembly elections in Assam. The affidavit had mentioned that wife Riniki had borrowed Rs 10 lakh from Padmavati Traders.

Following the same modus operandi, after Riniki became the director of Padmavati in 2006, its balance sheet showed 14 Kolkata-based companies buying two lakh shares (each share worth Rs 100 worth). The total amount received by the company was Rs 3,50,00,000. Interestingly, these were exactly the same Kolkata-based companies that bought shares in RBS Realtors.

Riniki and her father-in-law resigned from the directors’ posts at Padmavati Traders in 2010, and were replaced by the Guwahati-based businessman Ashok Dhanuka and his son Ghanshyam Dhanuka. As shown in an RTI-based report by these correspondents in June 2022, Ghanshyam’s company was one of the beneficiaries of the Covid-related medical procurements when Himanta was the health minister.

This is the pattern witnessed in RBS Realtors and Padmavati Traders, visible also in DS Graha Nirman Pvt Ltd: soon after Bhaskar Sarma, Ranjit Bhattacharjee and Mrinalini Devi became its directors, investments began to pour in from certain companies in Kolkata. As many as 51 such companies pumped in a total of Rs 5,14,36,000, as per ministry details.

The Kolkata connection

What is interesting is that 13 of these companies were investors in both DS Graha Nirman and RBS (Vasistha) Realtors. These companies are – Elegance Trade and Holding Private Limited, Radiant Merchandise Private Limited, Dingo Commodities, Oleander Manufacturers and Trading Private Limited, Ecolac Vinimay Private Limited, Yulan Marketing, Nilhaat Promoters, Subh Laxmi Coal and Exim, Chhattisgarh Biri Patta private Limited, Harlalka Commercial, Tristar Agencies and Subhrekha Vyapar, and SK Stock Dealers.

Of the 51 Kolkata-based companies, 17 of them continue to own shares in DS Graha Nirman; the total share value of these 17 companies is Rs 3,74,60,000. These companies are – Sunima Trading Private Limited, Simps Vanijya Private Limited, Subh Suppliers Private Limited, Shiv Arpan Private Limited, Arihant Enterprise, Vindhya Agencies; Cendelear Traction, Sunrise Agencies, Sapphire Exports and Agency, Oriplast Merchendise, Karnika Financial Service, Raylan Advisory, Bonful Cell, Hoogly Jute Mill, Koel Tradecom, Landmark Suppliers, and Utthan Tie-up.

Yet another similarity in the pattern is evident when we evaluate the ministry’s latest record on the Chandmari Tea Company. Like the Kolkata-based companies soon transferred their shares to Bhaskar Sarma and his family and the chief minister’s wife’s uncle in the case of Vasistha Realtors after they came in as directors of the company, the March 31, 2020 balance sheet of DS Graha Nirman Pvt. Ltd. also showed several Kolkata-based companies transferring their shares to the same uncle of the chief minister’s wife, Guna Tamuli Phukan.

Like in the case of Vasistha Realtors, Phukan passed on the shares of DS Graha Nirman to his sister and chief minister’s mother-in-law Meena Bhuyan. As mentioned above, she now owns 19.25% shares in that company.

In the case of Vasistha Realtors, on the chief minister’s son turning 18 in 2017, Meena Bhuyan transferred the shares to him, thereby making him the majority shareholder of the company. In the case of DS Graha Nirman Pvt Ltd., as of now, Meena Bhuyan still owns the shares and thereby is also a stakeholder in the Chandmari Tea Company.

Looking for these companies in Kolkata

Like several companies that had invested in Padmavati and Vasistha Realtors shared the same address in Kolkata, many that have invested in DS Graha Nirman Pvt. Ltd. also have the same address in the city.

During the earlier investigation, a visit by The Wire to some of the addresses of the companies that had pumped money into both Vasistha Realtors and Padmavati Traders had shown no semblance of a company office. An image from one such address can be seen below.

The Wire went in search of DS Graha Nirman Pvt. Ltd. too at its official address furnished to the ministry. Amidst a busy lane pockmarked with sundry shops, 75, Metcalfe Road in Bou Bazar could be located but there was no visible presence of DS Graha Nirman at the premises. The only signboard The Wire could spot was of a shop at the address that caters to letter cutting, laser engraving, etc. This short video captures the lane ending at the shop that shares the same address as the DS Graha Nirman Pvt Ltd.

Notably, in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha in March 2022, Union corporate affairs minister Rao Inderjit Singh had given the definition of a shell company. The minister had called it “a company without active business operation or significant assets, which in some cases are used for illegal purpose such as tax evasion, money laundering, obscuring ownership, benami properties, etc.”

In June 2018, the Union Ministry of Finance had issued a press note stating that the Prime Minister’s Office had formed a task force to weed out random companies, marked as ‘shell’ companies. Its mandate was to check in a systematic way “through coordinated multi-agency approach, the menace of companies indulging in illegal activities including facilitation of tax evasion and commonly referred to as ‘shell companies’.” The press note had said that between 2017 and 2018, as many as 2,26,166 such companies were identified and removed from the register of companies and 3,09,619 directors were disqualified.

A finance ministry release in 2019 said the department had the database of a confirmed list of shell companies amounting to 16,537 names. The Task Force also has a Derived List and a Suspect List, said the release. As per government data till March 15, 2022, as many as 3.82 lakh such shell companies have been struck off the Companies Act till the financial year 2020-21.

No semblance of a corporate office or business activity as mentioned in government records could be found on visiting several of the Kolkata-based companies which are directly linked to Himanta’s immediate family.

In total, between Chandmari Tea Company, Vasistha Realtors and Padmavati Traders, Kolkata-based companies are officially stated to have made an investment of Rs 11,60,81,000.