FOREIGN OFFICE DUPED?

3-3-2010

investigative news break story

for VAARTHA

HOW FOREIGN OFFICE

AND HOME MINISTRY APPROVED THE

FAKE-INVITATION TO

AN OFFICIAL?

INTERNET FRAUD

OF FOREIGN INVITE

Culpable for a fraud, more how did the Foreign Office 

and home ministry were duped?

The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has 

pushed under carpet a cyber fraud, at least until its chairperson and 

members retire in a month, to save them from accountability and 

embarrassment.

It made an upfront payment for hotel and its member travelled to London 

for a so-called UN-sponsored conference only to find there was no 

conference and nobody booked her hotel accommodation. The invite had 

come through Internet email  in April last year and all follow-up 

communication was also through emails.

Interestingly, the Ministry of Women and Child Welfare gave the 

administrative clearance and the External Affairs Ministry accorded the 

political clearance for the commission member Sandhya Bajaj to attend 

the conference, without suspecting any foul play.

Since the Indian High Commission was neither asked to verify bonafides 

of organisers and details of the conference nor was it communicated 

arrival of the commission member for protocol facilities like receiving 

her at the airport and lodging her in the hotel, the lady found herself 

totally lost.

Nobody even bothered to check with any UN office about the so called 

"10th MDGs International Conference" the world body was organising from 

May 26 to 29 after the fraudulent email landed on the desk of the 

commission chairman.

The truth came to light only on May 26 last year when the member rang 

up the chairperson to inform her that she has become victim of a fraud 

as nobody received her or contacted her on arrival and when she checked 

from the Hotel Hyde Park where her room had been booked and where the 

conference was to be held, she was told no such conference is taking 

place there and no room was booked in her name. She returned on May 28, 

a day before the conference was to conclude.

The exchequer lost a little less than Rs 1 lakh. The commission 

promptly ordered a preliminary inquiry by one A K Malhotra, a retired 

PSU officer providing human resource and legal consultancy. He was 

asked to give report within two weeks, but nothing became of the 

exhaustive 52-page report he filed, pointing out a score of 

irregularities. A case was also filed with the cyber cell of Delhi 

Police but no progress as the commission showed no interest.

The chairman and members of the commission are completing their term on 

April 4 and nobody wants the incident probed as it may bring out other 

scandals in the commission's cupboards and put them in the box much 

after they are retired and gone. It was this fear that prompted them 

not to report the incident to the Central Vigilance Commission or the 

Central Bureau of Investigation.

Some Indian appears to be involved in the cyber fraud as the commission 

was told through an email that the organisers will arrange the flight 

tickets for the delegate after the hotel booking is done by him or her 

and gave an ICICI Bank account to deposit the money for the hotel 

booking, claiming it was the account of the hotel's reservation officer 

Ansari Abdulla. A cash amount of Rs 36,400 was deposited in the ICICI 

Bank's New Delhi branch on May 22.

Nobody felt even slightly suspicious despite the fact that the hotels 

never ask for advance money while booking rooms, particularly when the 

request comes from a government organisation. Moreover, at the most the 

hotel will ask for the first day's deposit.

Nor did the commission approach the ICICI Bank immediately to know 

about Ansari and request for details of his accounts and whether he had 

transferred the money received in his account to anybody else. Even 

immediate police complaint was not preferred as the commission wanted 

first to go through preliminary inquiry on its own.

No explanation is also given as to what prompted the commission to buy 

the air tickets when the organisers had promised to provide them. 

During the inquiry, the staff said the member, Sandhya Bajaj, had 

ordered purchase of the tickets after money was released to her through 

a cheque.

The inquiry also revealed that the staff showed to Sandhya Bajaj an 

email sent by one Dr Suresh Kumar to her on May 11, a fortnight before 

her travel, that "this UN conference is fraud," but she ordered to 

ignore it and go ahead with programme. When confronted, she denied any 

such email and said Dr Suresh Kumar had a telephonic conversation only 

to request her for arranging his hotel accommodation for the conference 

he was also attending.

Sandhya Bajaj and the staff were engaged in running battle in a bid to 

put blame on each other for every irregularity. She accused the staff 

of not showing her all emails while the staff showed files to claim she 

returns papers without signing and so they cannot prove her consent on 

every step they took under her orders. 

Had the commission asked the sender of the email to send a formal 

invitation through post with details loke brochure on the conference, 

details of the participants, the delegate fee, etc., the fraud would 

have been nipped in the bud. Nor did anybody think it fit to intimate 

the Indian High Commission about the event in which the commission is 

participating.

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