A Feast of Vultures: The Hidden Business of Democracy in India

by Josy Joseph

According to the trail that I was able to establish while working on this book, in 2005–06, the family of former army chief (1990–93) and then Punjab governor, General Sunith Francis Rodrigues, sold one of their companies to a firm promoted by Choudhrie. The deal happened when Choudhrie and his firms were under investigation by the CBI for their alleged involvement in manipulating arms deals in India. In transactions between 2005 and 2007, the value of a plot owned by a company of General Rodrigues, Zuari River Agrotech, was valued upwards almost a hundred times. Zuari was originally started by General Rodrigues in 1994 with the name Zuari Tigers Aqua. He held ten shares and another retired army officer, Captain Anil Bhalla, held a single share. Zuari had a plot of land valued at Rs 19.78 lakh. In 2005–06 Zuari claimed an addition to its assets, by revaluing the land to Rs 9.06 crore. On 17 February 2006, Zuari was amalgamated with Crystal Island Park, a company started by the former army chief’s son, Mark Rodrigues. All assets, liabilities and reserves of Zuari were taken over at their book value of Rs 10.88 crore by Crystal Island Park. Within days of the amalgamation, its ownership was transferred to a company called Grandeur Real Estate. On 22 April 2006, Mark transferred his 1,29,030 shares in Crystal Island Park to Grandeur Real Estates; his minority partner Ashok Chawla also transferred his 20,970 shares. Thus, the full ownership and control of Crystal Island Park w...