New Delhi, January 6
Remember the controversial “Mittal diary” that triggered a political storm — embarrassing the Congress — before the recent Assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh? Information available with The Tribune shows that the Mittal diary can also be a source of embarrassment to the BJP-ruled states of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.

The Tribune has procured a complete set of 45-pages of the Mittal Diary with I-T Department official Prashant Khambara’s signatures, dated November 30, 2011.

The entries in the diary are the alleged record of off-book cash payments to politicians and their staff members and bureaucrats, besides sundry payments for day-to-day affairs of the Mittal family.

The Mittal diary contains computerised sheets which were seized by officials of the Income Tax Department in a raid on the Pramod Mittal-controlled Ispat company’s offices in December 2010. The records were in the custody of the I-T Department’s Central Circle, Mumbai, when these were “leaked” out just before the Himachal poll.

Pramod Mittal is younger brother of global steel baron Lakshmi Narayan Mittal, Chairman and CEO of ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest steel-making company, which is facing nationalisation threat from the French government.

With more “intriguing” information now available about cash payments in the Mittal Diary sheets, it would seem that the “selective leakage” of pages containing specific “payment entries” was apparently made to hurt the Congress poll campaign.

“Mittal Diary” documents are actually photo copies of computerised sheets - titled “Statement of CMD Account at Delhi” (from 2006 to 2010).

A close scrutiny of these pages reveals that there are many entries that may embarrass the BJP leadership in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.

There is said to be an entry, dated July 27, 2007, of cash payment of Rs 2.5 lakh that reads: “Misc expenses on signing of MoU for people of industry and Chief Minister Office at Indore”.

Another alleged “payment entry”, dated October 27, 2010, reads “Amt paid to CM MP for car”. There is another payment entry of Rs 1 lakh, dated September 25, 2007, listing it as “Payment CM staff for Bhopal mines”.

There are similar payment entries related to other two mineral-rich states of Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand. A Rs 50-lakh payment entry dated April 16, 2010, reads “Amount of Exp Raipur Land Approval”. An entry dated January 1, 2008, is said to indicate that Rs 84,890 was spent on “Hospitalisation of Sr Govt official CG”. There are many more such entries in the computerised diary sheets.

A spokesman for the Chhattisgarh Government said, “We are not aware of these entries, so we can’t comment.” A spokesman of the Madhya Pradesh Government said, “No one from the I-T department has contacted the state administration about this issue.”

Other entries from the Mittal diary for 2006-2010 allegedly show routine payoffs to officials in the ministries of steel, coal, mines, petroleum, environment and forests, finance, commerce, company affairs, rural development, highways and road transport, the National Highways Authority of India and public sector firm MSTC.

Interestingly, there are also some entries about cash payments made to the personnel of the CBI, the CVC, and the Enforcement Directorate, besides entries listing payments made to “Mr Kim” of the Korean High Commission. Entries also allegedly show cash payments to some journalists for stopping negative articles and photographs.

A mysterious “S” seems to have been the recipient of the largesse month-after-month during the entire period covered in the diary, showing monthly payments of Rs 2 lakh up to November 2006, which was doubled to Rs 4 lakh per month subsequently.

The diary first figured in the BJP’s election campaign in Himachal Pradesh in October. The then ruling state BJP leadership and party’s central leaders made certain “cash payment entries” in the Mittal diary a major poll issue to embarrass Virbhadra Singh, as he was projected by the Congress as its CM candidate.

The BJP publicised “selected” entries by linking alleged payoffs from the Ispat Industries against one “VBS” to former Union Steel Minister Virbhadra Singh. The BJP had alleged that “VBS” stood for Virbhadra Singh and that the entries recording “the alleged payments of about Rs 2.28 crore coincided with his term as the Union Steel Minister that lasted less than two years (from May 28, 2009, to January 18, 2011).

Virbhadra Singh had denied that any undue favour was accorded to Ispat Industries. A senior official attached to his office said “the Raja Saheb before elections had described the allegations as a cheap political stunt with an aim to influence the Assembly poll…and people understood it well, and, that is why, they voted him to power.”