This document summarizes journalist Vineet Narain's crusade from 1993 to 2002 to expose the Hawala corruption scandal in India. Some key points: 1) In 1993, Narain exposed that Hawala channels were funding terrorist groups in Kashmir and that over 100 top Indian politicians and officials had links to these channels. 2) Narain's investigations were suppressed by the Indian government. He faced censorship and resistance from investigating agencies like the CBI. 3) In 1996, dozens of Union Ministers and Chief Ministers were charged in the Jain Hawala scam based on Narain's petition to the Supreme Court. However, politicians later got the charges dropped. 4) Narain continued his

1. Terrorism, Hawala
and Corruption
in India
Historic crusade of journalist
Vineet Narain
(1993-2002)

2. Terrorism and Hawala funding
 After 9/11, the whole world
has come to know that
terrorist organisations
world over are being
funded through clandestine
Hawala channels.

3. Exposed Hawala before….
 Much before the world
media understood the
meaning of Hawala,
Indian journalist Vineet
Narain in 1993 had
exposed the Hawala
channels funding Hizbul
Mujahideen in J&K along
with the top political
leadership of India. Dec. 3rd 1995

4.  This was the biggest exposé
since 115 top politicians
from major political parties
and senior bureaucrats were
exposed having Hawala
links with militants and were
found to be indulging in
corrupt practices. This
included twelve Union
Cabinet Ministers, Leader of
opposition, Chief Ministers,
Governors etc.

5. Efforts to suppress….
 Narain‟s voice was collectively suppressed
by the rulers of India and the mainstream
media, pampered by them. Despite such
resistance Narain succeed in getting them all
charged for corruption in 1996 and earned
global media attention. However, once again
the rulers joined hands to ensure the burial
of the now famous Hawala case of Vineet
Narain.

6. International media later reported
 In any other country, it would
have been a sensational
expose. In India, it barely
creates ripples.
 Mr. Narain, who works in
television, claims that two of
the listed politicians admitted
to him on camera that they had
received money.
The Economist
September 16, 1995

7. India, Pakistan and terrorism
 Indian govt. and BJP make noise
on all international forums that
Pakistan is fuelling terrorism in
India. It also accuses US govt. for
having soft corner for Pakistan.
While the fact is that by
suppressing the efforts of Vineet
Narain in this case, the Indian
govt. has proved its hypocrisy in
dealing with terrorism and
Hawala. Hence, it is interesting to
know about this crusade which
can be of great help in
understanding the true nature of
Indian govt., Hawala operations
and cause of increasing militancy.

8. Fact sheet
 On 25th March 1991. Ashfaque
Hussain Lone, the Dy. Chief of
Intelligence of the Hizbul Mujahideen,
was arrested from Jamaiat-e-Islam
headquarters in old Delhi.
 Huge amount of cash meant for the
terrorist group in Kashmir was
recovered from him.
 Two days later, Shahabuddin Ghauri,
a student of the prestigious
Jawaharlal Nehru University, New
Delhi was also arrested in the same
case. Clues gathered from these two
accused led to the arrests of five
Hawala dealers.

9. Fact sheet
 Moolchand Shah of Mumbai was among
those arrested. He was later implicated
in Mumbai bomb blast (1993) case as
well.
 On the basis of information gathered
from these five dealers, Central Bureau
of Investigation (CBI) carried out raids in
at least 20 premises. This included the
residential premises of Delhi based
industrialist and international power
broker S K Jain and his family members.

10. The search & seizures
 The search in different places,
including the Jain premises, yielded
huge amount of unaccounted cash
in both Indian and foreign currency
and thousands of pounds of gold
bars.
 The infamous Jain diaries
(clandestine account books) were
also recovered from Jain's house.
 In these diaries, there is a detailed
record of payment of crores of
rupees to 115 most powerful
politicians including the Prime
Minister, Union Cabinet Ministers,
Leader of Opposition and senior
bureaucrats of India.

11. CBI shields Hawala nexus of top
politicians on May 3rd 1991
 At this point suddenly the ongoing
investigation was brought to a halt and
immediately put in the cold storage. Instead
of arresting the Jains and raiding the
politicians connected with this network,
shockingly enough, CBI omitted the names of
the Jain Brothers from the chargesheets
prepared against Lone and Ghauri, obviously,
to shield the powerful politicians.

12. Narain exposes CBI in 1993
 Then journalist Vineet Narain received photocopies of
pages in the Jain notebooks from a source. It didn‟t take
cryptographic genius to crack Jains code or to realise
the importance of the story. He produced a report for his
magazine format video cassette Kalchakra, but the
programme was blocked by Indian Censors for nearly
three months. It was finally released in November 1993.
The problem was that Jains notebooks smeared
members of most parties. “My battle”, Narain says, “was
against everyone”.
Time
January 29, 1996

13. International media reported..
 Narain, 39, produced a report in his monthly Hindi
video newsmagazine Kalchakra (“wheel of time”).
When he took the programme to government
censors, they got panicky and banned the cassette
he says. It was released nearly three months
later, in November 1993.
Asiaweek
Feb 2 ,1996
 Narain is hailed in same quarters today as India‟s
answer to Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodword, the
journalists who unraveled the Watergate Scandal.
The Statesman
April 13, 1996

14. Censor bans Kalchakra
 Shocked with this
exposé India‟s ruling
elite got this video
cassette banned
through the Film
Censor Board.
Narain appealed to
the Film Certification
Appellate Tribunal.

15. The Appellate Tribunal’s verdict
 “The story as it unfolds in the film is the result of
investigative journalism.... ...The net result is that
several politicians, ministers and bureaucrats have
not emerged exactly like knights in shining white
armor. To put it bluntly, they have come out rather
poorly.... But, then, this is what investigative
journalism is all about.....What may seemingly be
uncomfortable is not merely swept away under the
carpet by the expediency of censorship under the
guise of “defamation” or by a „holier than thou‟
posture.”
Justice B. Lentin
Nov. 22nd 1993

16. Narain filed a PIL in the Supreme Court in
Sept. 1993 demanding thorough probe into
Hawala Scam
Initially the Chief Justice of India
Justice MN Venkatchelliah was
hesitant to take it up because of it‟s
political fallout. He repeatedly forced
Narain to amend the petition to dilute
its content. Finally he issued the
notice to CBI in Dec.1993. On 14 Jan
94, CBI in it‟s reply accepted that the
allegations made in the petition were
true.

17. Finally Supreme Court of India issued
notice to CBI on Narain’s petition

18. International media later reported
 The Court case stemmed from a public
interest petition filed last year by Mr. Vineet
Narain, a leading journalist, asking the court
to examine the CBI investigation into the
affairs of Mr. Surendra Jain, a New Delhi
businessman with extensive political contacts
who is specialised in arranging power station
contracts.
Financial Times
December 1, 1994

19. Why Venkatchelliah did so…
 After CBI‟s reply Justice Venkatchelliah should
have taken up this case because of its serious
implications for the security of the nation. He did
not show the courage and kept repeatedly
adjourning the matter.
 Surprisingly in the last week of his retirement he
tried to take up the matter but Narain had
sensed the game hence he alerted his counsel
and got it postponed till his retirement.

20. After 10 months
delay the new
Chief Justice of
India gave a
serious jolt to
investigating
agencies and
ordered them to
act speedily

21. Unlike in other
scams, Indian
media didn’t show
the courage to take
up a case of this
magnitude.
In fact in 1993-94 efforts were made to
under play it. There were no TV channels
like today to make noise. This made
Narain‟s job very difficult. The clips you
saw earlier are from foreign publications
and are of 1995 onwards.

22. Unlike other scams
where one or two
individuals of a party are
exposed and others
make noise, in Hawala
senior politicians of all the
major political parties
were involved, hence, all
of them tried to suppress
this expose and no
political party ever
demanded probe in this
case. Narain was a lone
crusader against the
entire establishment

23. In 1995 & 1996
Supreme Court
regularly monitored
the functioning of
CBI, Directorate of
Revenue Intelligence,
Income Tax
Department and other
investigating agencies.
Yet these agencies did
not do their job
seriously.

24. Finally in Jan. 1996
dozens of Union
Cabinet Ministers,
Leader of Opposition,
Chief Ministers,
Governors and senior
bureaucrats were
charged in the Jain
Hawala scam. This
happened for the first
time in Indian history

25. Major impact on Indian polity
Indian Express 17 Jan 1996

26. Political fallout of Hawala Scam in 1996
 All political leaders lost credibility in people‟s mind, hence, in
the General Elections of the Indian Parliament, which were
held within four months of Hawala chargesheets, no political
party got majority. Dozens of them had to join hands to form
the govt. which kept falling after short durations.
 Shattered by this jolt the political class, cutting across party
lines, joined hands to subvert Hawala case and managed to
control the Chief Justice of India J S Verma. Narain was
keeping track of all the conspiracy being hatched.

27. Narain exposes the Chief Justice of India
 On 12th July 1997 Narain sent a detailed
letter to CJI, JS Verma describing his
unethical conduct in this case. This made him
and his brother judge Justice S C Sen very
jittery and they tried to pressurize Narain to
withdraw the same, which he refused to do.

28. On July 14th 1997 a
visibly nervous Justice
Verma shocked the
nation by confessing in
the open court that he
and Justice Sen were
being influenced to
hush up this case. He
did so to avoid public
expose of them by
Narain.

29. Surprisingly Justice
Verma did not reveal
the name of the
mystery man who had
influenced him and
his brother judge in
this case, nor did they
punish him for the
contempt of Apex
Court, why?

30. Based on his
investigation, Narain
revealed the name of
the mystery man, who
had been hobnobbing
with Justice Verma. A
courage no one had
shown in free India.
Yet the Judges didn’t
dare to issue contempt
notices to him.

31. At this point the
court and the
Govt. tried to
wriggle out of this
case by shifting
the focus from
investigation of
the Hawala case to
future safety
measures.

32. The Court
restructured the
Central Vigilance
Commission and
CBI in Hawala Case.
It was projected as a
landmark judgment
but none questioned
the fate of the
original Hawala case.

33. Politicians got discharged
 By suppressing the facts and concealing
evidence in the lower courts and Delhi High
Court (a fact confessed by the Jt. Dir. CBI, B
R Lal in a TV show), the accused politicians
in Hawala case got themselves discharged
and proclaimed this as their „moral victory‟.

34. Pledged to fight till the end
 Narain‟s efforts to highlight this lapses of CBI
were ignored by the Court. „Discharged‟
politicians, said there are no evidence and
this was a conspiracy against them. Media,
without checking the available evidences,
gave prominence only to their version. This
gave a wrong message to the nation.

35. CVC a lame duck
 However the Central Vigilance
Commission, as a byproduct of this
case, proved to be a lame duck.
 Vineet Narain in a TV debate in „Big Fight‟ of
Star News, anchored by Rajdeep
Sardesai, cornered CVC, N Vittal, who
announced on the show that he will re-open
the Hawala case.
 This sent a shock wave amongst the political
class, which was together in opposing
Hawala investigation.

36. Tremendous noise
was made for weeks
in the parliament to
oppose such a move
of CVC.
None asked the
question why were
they so scared when
they claim to be
innocent in the Jain
Hawala Case?

37. Current controversies about Scams
 Is it not interesting that unlike Bofors,
Tehelka, 2G Spectrum, where Parliament is
rocked for weeks, no noise was ever made to
demand honest probe of Jain Hawala case
which had direct links with militancy in India?
 In subsequent years all other scams are
repeatedly mentioned by the celebrity
debaters on TV shows but none dares to
mention Jain Hawala case.

38. Narain exposes the Supreme Court
Judiciary
 Despite such conspiracy by the
entire establishment against
him, the lone crusader Vineet
Narain did not give up . Narain
after exposing Justice J S
Verma, demanded his
prosecution, who by then had
been made the Chairman of
National Human Rights
Commission by the NDA Govt.
as a reward for his (dis)
service to the nation.

39. Contempt case against Narain in the
Supreme Court
 Shocked with this kind of bold journalism, the
Supreme Court Bar Association demanded
prosecution of Narain. Surprisingly in a jam
packed court the three judge bench refused
to prosecute Narain, claiming that they are
like sun which does not get dirty by throwing
dust upon it. The entire bar had a laugh at
this because they knew that the bench was
scared of hauling up Narain, who had
announced that he will expose more sitting
judges before going to jail in this case.

40. Adamant to expose higher judiciary’s immoral
character Narain further dared to expose the
scams of next CJI, Dr. A S Anand in 2000-2001
 He did so, only to
prove this point that
Hawala accused
were not discharged
because of lack of
evidence
but, because of
corrupt higher
Judiciary.

41. Lone battle against higher judiciary?
• Supreme Court Bar, Parliament
and the media did not show the
courage to stand by Narain in his
fight against the sitting CJI Dr
Anand.
•Narain was declared proclaimed
offender by the J&K High Court.
Police harassed him. He had to
remain underground for 18 months
and finally on June 2nd June 2001
he fled the country to protect his life.
•He got tremendous support by the
media and human right groups in
Europe and USA.

42. India: CPJ and Human Rights Watch protest
editor's contempt prosecution
For details log on to:
http://www.cpj.org/protests/01ltrs/India06jul01pl.html

43. Finally, the moral victory for Narain
The next CJI confessed in an
open seminar that;
Twenty percent judges in the
higher judiciary are corrupt.
Corrupt judges in higher
judiciary must be investigated
and dismissed from service.
Justice SP Bharucha
Chief Justice of India
Kovalam (Kerala) Dec. 2001

44. Excellence in Journalism Award
for whom ?
 Journalists, students of
journalism and the civil
society will be surprised to
know that for this exemplary
courage in journalism no
Award of Excellence has so
far been given to Vineet
Narain.
 This only proves how much
system can gag a lone
crusader. Yet he continues
to work with high spirit and Vineet Narain as „Statue of Liberty‟
youthful energy. for Indian media: The Pioneer 8.4.2001

45. If this is how the Indian investigating
agencies, Parliament, Govt. and top
judiciary behaved in the high profile scam
like Jain Hawala Case then why media
repeatedly makes noise about new scams
everyday ?

46. Can we really fight corruption and
militancy in India if Indian Govt., Opp.
parties and judiciary is not willing to
act?

47. A question must be asked by all of us,
how is it that despite increasing militancy,
widespread Hawala operations, blatant
corruption and independent judiciary, no
politician or bureaucrat has ever been
convicted ?

48. Disillusioned with the criminal nexus of
Executive, Judiciary and Legislature Narain
went to his roots in Braj and got involved
with water harvesting and revival of green
cover in order to conserve the rich cultural
and environmental heritage of this ancient
land associated with the life and time of Lord
Krishna. Here again he proved in no time
that history can be created with devotion and
dedication.

49. For details you may log on to
www.brajfoundation.org

51. ‘Vineet Narain Case’ back in news
 The controversy about CVC P J Thomas‟s
appointment, exposure of several scams where
huge money is being transferred through Hawala
and growing threat from militants, have brought back
„Vineet Narain Case‟ in the limelight.
 However, most people who often refer this case in
TV debates or print media, are unaware of the
dangerous and prolonged lone crusade of Vineet
Narain, from 1993 to 2002, on these issues which is
heatedly debated now in 2011.

52.  Interestingly the people behind India
Against Corruption Movement never
cared to involve such well-known crusader
against corruption? Because Mr. Shanti
Bhushan, Mr. Prashant Bhushan and Mr.
Ram Jethmalani were mainly responsible for
sabotaging the Hawala crusade.

53. Mr. Narain took these people on in
several TV debates

54. Why Narain has not written a book so far ?
 An explosive book on
this case was authored
by Narain titled, „Hawala
ke Deshdrohi‟ in Hindi
(since he is a Hindi
journalist) and was
released in 1999 with
much fanfare in the
presence of thousands of
political activists, who
had gathered at the
Constitution Club of New
JF Ribiero & Ex-Union Home
Minister Indrajit Gupta, release
Delhi.
Narain’s book

55. Book withdrawn from market
 Within one month two editions were sold-out
like hot-cake. This led to renewed threat to
the life of Vineet Narain, who had to go
underground and the book distribution was
completely stopped.
 Subsequently, even the negatives of the book
were withdrawn from the publisher.

56.  Activists, scholars,
and media persons
convinced Narain to
reproduce his
volcanic book on
corruption. The same
was silently released
in Aug 2011.
 Readers feel that this
book will surely
benefit the people of
India to fight against
corruption.

57. First ever book on corruption of the
Chief Justice of India by Narain
 In Nov 2011 Vineet Narain
released yet another book of his
titled Misuse of the Contempt
of Courts Act.
 This again is the testimony of
Narain‟s daring journalism.
 Both these books are in Hindi
and need to be translated in
other vernacular languages and
in English.

58. Need for international edition of English
book by Narain on his crusade
 Since 1999 many important bureaucrats and
scholars from India, West Europe and America have
asked Mr. Narain to produce the English edition of
the book on his Hawala Crusade. He needs
professional assistance to do this.
 Once published, this book should become the
international best seller, because it is a hair raising
fascinating story of the dogged persistence of an
uncompromising journalist, who single-handedly
fought against militancy, Hawala and political
corruption, and gave an unprecedented jolt to
corrupt Indian polity.

59. For more details you may log on to
www.vineetnarain.net
for these Hindi books you may contact his close
associate
Mr. Rajneesh Kapur
at
C-6/28, Safdarjung Development Area
New Delhi-110016
Tele; 011-26566800 & 26519080
vineetnarain@hotmail.com