Ministry rewards Natarajan for dumping Lokpal’s order
A Trading firm registered on house address made a Fake Project
SAIL sold 7,000 T of TMT & 1300 T of PMP at negotiated prices on heavy discounts; SAIL takes hit of over Rs 2.5 CR
A lot has been said and talked about T N Natrajan, who was selected for the Director (Commercial) by the Search cum selection committee of Ministry of Steel on Jan 12, 2026. Despite a lot of irregularities attached to him for his tenure as Regional Manager of Western Region of SAIL CMO, ACC still approved his name for the post and he finally took over as Director (Commercial) of SAIL on Mar 20, 2026, superseding many senior officers.
We have already exposed that during his tenure as RM/WR Natarajan supplied about 1,00,000 Tonne to FAKE Projects; All these supplies are after complaint of Venkatesh Infra Projects P Ltd was in public domain and Ministry has already endorsed CBI investigations in the same and directed SAIL to initiate RDA against M C Agarwal; Natarajan dumps LOKPAL order dated Jan 10, 2024 and keeps on supplying to Fake Projects; even suspension of 29 officer could not deter him; Natarajan sold about 40,000 Tonne sold to FAKE Projects after LOKPAL’s order.
All India sales to FAKE Projects after LOKPAL order dated Jan 10, 2024 are estimated to be 75,000 T; Natarajan accounts for more than 50% of these sales – The rare distinction which worked in his favour in front of the Search cum Selection committee which selected Natarajan for the post of Director (Commercial) of SAIL.
Source : Order dated January 10, 2024 of Honourable LOKPAL of India
https://lokpalonline.gov.in/lokpalonline/cdn/web_upload/CN73,74and752023_1705052862.pdf
Today we place before you another case of a FAKE Project : Hind Infra Company to whom over 7,000 Tonne of TMT Bars & 1,300 Tonne of PM Plates have been supplied at negotiated prices on heavy discounts by Jaipur Branch of Western Region, passing an illegal discount of over Rs 2.5 CR to the firm.
Hind Infra Company a Proprietorship Firm incorporated on 14-Oct-2021 and is registered with GST with GSTIN 08ASVPM7744A1ZC, Principal Place of Business as “HOUSE NO. 946-3, OLD H.N.448-C, BABU MOHALLA, KESAR GANJ, AJMER, Rajasthan” and nature of core business activities as “WHOLESALE BUSINESS” and “RETAIL BUSINESS”.
In Apr 2023, the supplies to Hind Infra Company began with the approval of BM-Jaipur, RBM(LP)-WR and RM-WR i.e. Viney, Harishankar and Atul respectively. In July, Atul was promoted to ED(Sales &ITD) for his excellent contribution to the FAKE Project fund and moved to Kolkata. By the time Atul left, only about 1,000 Tonne of TMT Bars were supplied to the firm.
Over 4,200 T of TMT Bars sold in Aug, Sep & Oct 2023 when the market was extremely buoyant
Supplied 1300 T PMP when Naranjan holds charge of RBM-FP & RM
Natrajan took over as RM-WR in July 2023. With his coming supplies to the firm as FAKE Project accelerated. Under Natrajan who was the approving authority, over 6,000 Tonne of TMT Bars & 1,300 Tonne of PM Plates were sold to Hind Infra Company. During this, Harishankar was the Regional Business Manager for Long Products and the charge for Regional Business Manager for Flat Products was with Natrajan only.
It is not only Natrajan who has been rewarded for supplies to the FAKE Projects. Viney Kumar was taken to Director Commercial’s office in Feb 2025 where his old partner Naranjan has joined him as Director Commercial. As per estimates from a source, Viney Kumar sold about 70,000 Tonne of steel to FAKE Projects, largely TMT Bars, from Jaipur during his tenure as Branch Manager.
Harishankar was promoted to CGM in Feb 2025 and sent to Kolkata. After a short stint at Kolkata sent back to Western Region as Regional Manager, his “Karam Bhumi” where he sold over 1,25,000 Tonne to FAKE Projects as Regional Business Manager.
It is noteworthy that both Atul Mathur and Jacob Chako were Branch Managers of Jaipur Branch in their earlier avatars : Have Old Relations resulted in New Formations ?
Must read the article titled ‘SAIL PROJECT SCAM: Will the situation transform under new CVO SAIL & CMD SAIL?’ to know how the officers involved in supplies to Venkatesh Infra Projects P Ltd & Avon Steel Industries P Ltd were promoted & rewarded with prized sensitive & lucrative posts.
Instead of reprimanding, censuring, and punishing the officers involved in the FAKE Project Scam, management kept on rewarding them with promotions and prized sensitive & lucrative posts, giving fillip and encouragement to others to emulate their wrong doings. This is precisely the reason, even scathing remarks of LOKPAL in its order dated Jan 10, 2024, could not deter few officers from supplying to the Fake Projects.
Apart from Venkatesh Infra Projects P Ltd & Avon Steel Industries P Ltd, there are numerous complaints on Fake Projects, accompanied with sufficiently ample proofs, available with SAIL Vigilance but the officials responsible for all the illegal supplies also continue to enjoy prized, sensitive & lucrative posts.
With joining of A K Tripathi as new CVO SAIL, who is also a Joint Secretary in Ministry of Steel, would one see change in approach of vigilance or the customs & traditions set by earlier CVO S N Gupta would continue?
In addition, for a better tomorrow, SAIL is also expected to get new CMD on Apr 02, 2026. It would be interesting to see how different is the outlook of the incumbent from the present CMD on corruption and corruption complaints? It is an important question because present CMD SAIL Amerandu Prakash was interested only in eliminating the Whistle Blower and not the corruption.
CMD SAIL had the audacity to dishonestly & unlawfully write “doubtful integrity” in the perverse premature retirement order of the Whistle Blower Rajeev Bhatia to take revenge on him for exposing the corruption but he does not doubt the integrity of any officer, including his own, who are involved in sales to Venkatesh Infra Projects P Ltd, Avon Steel Industries P Ltd and numerous other FAKE Projects.
(The above article has been written based on extensive research and inputs from various sources including sources from SAIL)
