The Essar leaks include e-mails, office memos, telephone conversations and other records allegedly leaked from the systems of the Indian business conglomerate Essar Group. The leaked records allegedly contain evidence of politician-corporate nexus in India, and show how business interests unfairly manipulate Indian government and judiciary.
In 2015, an unnamed whistleblower leaked a set of internal e-mails and memos from the Essar Group, alleging that the conglomerate had granted favours to several politicians, bureaucrats and journalists. Essar denied the allegations, terming the alleged favours as "common courtesies" that are legally justifiable. Essar also claimed that some of the leaked material was fabricated, and was being used to blackmail them.
In May 2016, lawyer Suren Uppal reported the existence of a new set of secretly recorded conversations to the Prime Minister. The conversations involve influential politicians, bureaucrats, businesspeople, bankers, and other VIPs. Uppal claimed to have received these tapes from the former Essar employee Albasit Khan, and alleged that the Essar officials illegally tapped these conversations during the 2000s. In June 2016, after the Outlook magazine made Uppal's claims public, Khan denied Essar's role in tapping the conversations. He acknowledged the existence of the tapes, but stated he had received these tapes from the now-deceased Mumbai Police officer Vijay Salaskar, a claim denied by Mumbai Police. According to Khan, the ultimate source and authenticity of the tapes are unknown. He admitted to having informed Uppal about the tapes, but accused Uppal of fabricating the Essar link to extort money from the business. Uppal denied the allegations, and promised to release the tapes to the Supreme Court of India. Essar completely denied the story, accusing Suren Uppal of being an extortionist.
In 2015, a whistleblower approached lawyer-activist Prashant Bhushan, and leaked a set of internal e-mails and memos from Essar Group. The material indicated that Essar Group had granted favours to several politicians, bureaucrats and journalists. This led to allegations that Essar had been trying to unfairly influence public policy and opinion. Bhushan's Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL) filed a PIL before the Supreme Court of India, requesting an investigation into these allegations.[1] The Essar Group filed an affidavit seeking dismissal of the PIL, calling the favours as legally justifiable "common courtesies".[2]
On 1 June 2016, the Delhi-based lawyer Suren Uppal submitted a 29-page complaint to Prime Minister Narendra Modi alleging that Essar had tapped VIP conversations during 2000s.[3] According to Uppal, the Essar Group had carried out the surveillance on the Prime Minister's Office (starting with A. B. Vajpayee), the cabinet ministers, government bureaucrats and rival businesspeople.
According to Uppal, the tapping was done under the supervision of Albasit Khan (or Basit Khan), a former head of security and vigilance at Essar Group. Uppal claims to be Khan's former legal representative, and has alleged that Khan was forced to resign from Essar in 2011, after being accused of keeping back some of the recorded conversations.[3] He has alleged that "special mobile SIM cards or the mobile interceptor mobile SIM cards" were used to tap the conversations.[3] Until 2005, the surveillance was carried out over the BPL Mobile network, which had been under Essar's control. The network was also used by Essar's rival Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), which allowed Essar to tap their conversations. However, RIL moved out of this network after 2005. After that, Essar allegedly used Hutchison network for the tapping.
In June 2016, the Outlook magazine published a report on these tapped conversations.[4] Subsequently, Albasit Khan told the media that Essar had not recorded these conversations, and stated that their source and authenticity were unknown. Khan acknowledged the existence of tapes containing the conversations, but stated that the Mumbai Police officer Vijay Salaskar had given these tapes to him for "safekeeping" in 2005. Mumbai Police denied this, and Outlook doubted Khan's claim, pointing out that the tapes include conversations from as late as 2011.[5] Khan admitted that had had met Uppal in January 2016, and had informed him about the tapes. But he denied hiring Uppal as his lawyer.[6] Khan alleged Uppal of fabricating the Essar link to extort money from the business. In response, Uppal claimed that he and Khan had been working to "expose" the tapping, but Khan backed out under Essar Group's influence. He promised to hand over the alleged tapes to the Supreme Court as part of a Public Interest Litigation (PIL).[7]
Essar is said to have recorded the conversations of following people:[3]
The Essar leaks allegedly show that the businesses unfairly influenced the Indian government and judiciary during both UPA and NDA tenures.[4] The leaks include the following:
In the 2015 affidavit seeking dismissal of CPIL's request for investigation, the Essar Group stated that they had not derived any benefits from the alleged favours. The affidavit stated that there was no evidence of any criminal offence by Essar Group, and the alleged favours "common courtesies extended by corporate houses".[2]
Essar filed a police complaint for data theft, and threatened legal action against media outlets that publish "any allegations based on any email stolen from the system":[10]
When The Caravan published a cover story critical of the company, the Essar group filed a 2500 million defamation suit against the magazine.[11]
Essar also questioned the authenticity of the leaked e-mails, calling them "unverified" and "pure hearsay". It stated that the company had not recruited people based solely on VIP recommendations, calling such recommendations legal and proper in Indian context.[2]
Essar accused CPIL of launching a smear campaign against them to seek publicity.[2]
BJP leader Nitin Gadkari denied extending any favours to the Essar Group, while commenting on his Essar-sponsored yacht stays. He stated that he was not a minister or the BJP President at the time, and paid for his family's Norway vacation using his own money. When Ruias (Essar owners) learned that he was visiting Europe, they invited him to their yacht as a family friend.[10]
Sriprakash Jaiswal and Digvijaya Singh defended themselves stating they regularly make referrals to companies, to help unemployed people. Varun Gandhi stated that his office regularly gave letters of recommendations to educated unemployed youth after "satisfying their bonafide credentials."[10]
Journalists Anupama Airy and Sandeep Bamzai resigned after being named among those for whom Essar had arranged cabs.[9] Airy stated that she had requested a cab from Essar "as help from a friend", and not as a journalist. She also expressed displeasure at being singled out, stating that other journalists at Hindustan Times had sought such help from businesses in the past.[12] Bamzai denied publishing any biased news to favour Essar Group, and stated that asking them for a cab was simply "a stupid mistake". Meetu Jain had asked Essar for a cab in 2012, when she was working with CNN-IBN. At the time her name was released, she was working as a Deputy News Editor at Times Now, which initiated an internal inquiry against her.[9]
The Aam Aadmi Party and Indian National Congress demanded that the alleged tapes be made public.[13] [14]
The Prime Minister Narendra Modi ordered the Home Ministry to conduct an inquiry, and submit a detailed report.[15]