Today we will take a look at 10 Infamous scams in Indian History

Black Money Scam

Cost to the Nation: Rs. 7,280,000 Crores

Face of Black Money Scam | Hasan Ali Khan

This scam was highlighted when Hasan Ali Khan was arrested by Enforcement Directorate and the Income Tax Department on charges of stashing over $ 360 billion (Rs. 39,120 cr) in foreign banks

The revelation about the huge sums of money being stacked in Swiss banks served as an various movement & rally against the government that had been ignoring it.

Now present NDA Government led by Mr. Narendra Modi, has started revealing the name, but revealed list is too small in compression with the actual list.

2G Scam

Cost to the nation: Rs 176,000 Crore

Face of 2G Scam | A. Raja & M. Kanimozhi

The much speculated about 2G Spectrum Scam has been one of themost expensive scams in the nation’s record. Former telecom minister Mr. A. Raja was the person who skillfully siphoned 1.76-lakh crore INR by evading the 2G licensing norms.

The scam became bigger with new revelations of the involvement of politicians, bureaucrats, corporate personalities, media persons and lobbyists. The granting of licenses to various companies led to a massive loss to the exchequer. Also, daughter of political heavyweight, Karunanidhi, M. Kanimozhi was also arrested on charges of being a co-conspirator in the scandal

Coalgate scam

Cost to the Nation: Rs 186,000 Crore

Face of Coalgate Scam | PMO Office

This political scam took centre-stage when the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India report in 2012 highlighted that the failure to auction 194 coal blocks amounted to huge losses to the Indian government.

The government allocates coal blocks through a process of competitive bidding. However, this procedure was not followed and there were discrepancies in its reporting

Initially the loss was pegged at over Rs10 lakh crore, but the CAG revised it to Rs1.86 lakh crore after leaving out PSUs from its final report.

Mining Scam

Face of Mining Scam | Naveen Patnaik led government

Cost to the Nation: Rs. 300,000 Crores

This scam was plundering at its best with the Naveen Patnaik led government exploiting the state’s minerals to the tune of lakhs of crores of rupees. Apparently, the mine owners had been illegally using fake Transit Passes to transport minerals from Orissa to other states. The plundering was a large scale one and involved many high profile people from the government and bureaucracy.

Hawala Scam

Cost to the Nation: Rs 117,000 Crore

Hawala Scam hall of Fame | The Team

Hawala scam was probably the first scam that gave the public an idea of the the loot of national treasure that was being implemented by the top politicians. The scam revolved around the payments that the politicians received from hawala brokers, who basically fund terrorism around the globe. Many prominent politicians like LK Advani, Arjun Singh, Yashwant Sinha, Kalpnath Roy, VC Shukla, Madhavrao Scindia, Sharad Yadav, Buta Singh, Natwar Singh and Madan Lal Khurana were indicted in this case, but no action was taken against them due to lack of hardcore evidence.

Stamp Paper Scam

Cost to the Nation: Rs 20,000 Crores

Face of Stamp Scam | Abdul Karim Telgi

The Stamp Paper scam was perhaps the most innovative scam in the list. Abdul Karim Telgi, a former fruits and vegetables seller, duped the nation of crores of rupees by printing fake stamp papers. He began his counterfeit career by making fake passports after which he started selling fake stamp papers to banks, insurance companies, share broking firms and bulk purchases. What was surprising, was the involvement of many police officers and other government employees.

CWG Scam

Cost to the Nation: Rs. 70,000 Crores

Face of CWG Scam | Suresh Kalmadi

During investigations, Organizing Committee chairman Suresh Kalmadi’s name surfaced as the main accused. Kalmadi has been accused of awarding a contract to install Timing, Scoring and Results (TSR) system for the 2010 CWG to Swiss Timing at inflated rates causing a loss of over Rs 90 crore to the exchequer.

While the organizing committee drew flak for various allegations like child labour, sex slavery, environmental impact, racism and financial costs, the one that shocked the nation was the humungous amount of funds that had been mishandled by them. The chairman of the organizing committee was, resultantly, arrested on charges of ‘criminal conspiracy and cheating.’

Satyam Scam

Cost to the Nation: Rs 4,000 Crores

Face of Satyam Scam | Ramalinga Raju

The Satyam Scam was the biggest corporate scam that the country ever saw. The founder of the Satyam Group, Raju, resigned after he admitted to fudging the account books for years and falsely inflating the profit figures and revenues of Satyam for years. The credibility of the company fell hugely, owing to the scam and it was finally taken over by the Mahindra Group.

Stock Market scam

Cost to the Nation: Rs 4,000 Crores

Face of Stock scam | Harshad Mehta

Harshad Mehta, the former employee of New India Assurance, entered the stock market and soon became one of the most reliable and revered icon of the market. He alone decided the fate of the stock market and even banks trusted him with their ready forward deals. However Harshad managed to produce seamlessly original looking fake bank receipts and many banks lent him huge amounts of money assuming that they were doing this in return of government securities. In short he siphoned lump sum from the banking system and raised a large fund for himself. Though he was convicted and banished from the stock market scenario, he had already caused loss worth more than 4000 corers INR.

Chopper scam

Cost to the Nation: Rs 3600 Crore

Face of Chopper Scam | Giuseppe Orsi

Better known as Choppergate, the scam involves several politicians and defence officers, who have been accused of having accepted bribes from AugustaWestland to clear a contract to supply 12 AgustaWestland AW101 helicopters to India.

India had signed a contract to purchase 12 AgustaWestland AW101 helicopters in February 2010. The Rs3600 crore-scam came to light on February 12, 2013, when Finmeccanica CEO Giuseppe Orsi was arrested by Italian authorities for bribes allegedly paid to secure the sale of 12 helicopters to India

Read Next “Dear Globe We are not a Nation of Rapists”

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