Under the SIT’s scanner in the Telgi scam for his alleged links with Chaggan Bhujbal’s son, Mumbai businessman Antim Totla got a clean chit from Maharashtra Civil Supplies Minister Sureshdada Jain after a raid shut down his naphtha distillation unit.Licences of Jalgaon-based Paradise Petrochem, linked to Totla, were cancelled and naphtha stocks confiscated after a joint search last May by the Petroleum Ministry’s Anti Adulteration Cell and the district administration.According to Ministry papers, available with The Indian Express, the official alleged that the unit was non-functional, had neither trained staff nor equipment because the naphtha was being illegally diverted ‘‘to various parties for adulteration.’’ Naphtha is mixed into petrol since the price difference between them is very high.While Jain was not available for comment since he is indisposed, his office confirmed that ‘‘Jain heard both the sides and set aside the order.’’But when Jain restored the licence, the anti-adulteration cell sent a note asking him to rethink. ‘‘It is clear that the above company is not doing any processing but only diverting their naphtha,’’ the cell wrote to the minister in September.Two months later, with no word from Jain, the cell wrote to the Secretary, Petroleum Ministry: ‘‘In view of the orders passed by the minister, the AAC was finding it difficult to carry out any further investigations in the matter. Moreover, if the results of our painstaking efforts are anulled by orders of the state government, it will be extrememly difficult for our officers to operate in that state.’’Incidentally, as part of the Telgi scam probe, on March 10, the CBI raided more Totla units after it found papers related to petrol adulteration.Jain’s order, restoring the licence and the stocks, claimed that when the Totla unit got its licence, no terms and conditions had been conveyed to it. And that it had fulfilled the ‘‘end-user conditions.’’Denying these, the anti-adulteration cell said that end-user certificates were not submitted by Paradise. Moreover, some companies which Paradise showed as its buyer did not even exist. Meanwhile, in the Maharashtra Assembly, BJP leaders Eknath Khadse and Gopinath Munde raised the issue without naming Jain. They demanded that government must probe the case and take action against the guilty.
