Page 60 - Gujar Mal Modi

an anonymous letter of complaint to the Prime Minister alleging that during the

disturbed conditions of the post-partition days Mr. Modi had entered into a con-
spiracy with the railway officials and had managed to misappropriate railway

consignments worth several thousands of rupees. The Prime Minister’s Secretar-
iat forwarded the anonymous letter to the Minister for Railways who ordered an

investigation.

The case was entrusted to the Special Police Establishment. Once the case was
with the S.P.E., the CID Officer, who was a relation of the Claims Inspector, was

able to cook up a case of cheating implicating Mr Modi and several officers of
Modi mills including the Accountant and the Secretary. The officer of the mills

dealing with the railways was forced by the police to side with them under threat
and preparations for a large number of fake witnesses were also made. Thereaf-

ter, a request was made to the Union Government that since the person involved
in the racket happened to be a very influential industrialist of Northern India,

some judge from Madhya Pradesh should be asked to hear the case. Elaborate
preparations were made to cook up a false case, and for its prosecution.

The simple fact, which came to light only later, was that in 1947, when the coun-
try was passing through a state of turmoil, a large number of wagons carrying

coal to destinations in West Punjab were detained by the railway officials at Delhi
and to avoid congestion at Delhi mill owners in adjoining states were requested

to take some of these wagons over to their sidings. Some wagons, in this way,
were despatched to Modinagar and incidentally some wagons carrying pipes,

stone, and salt also came to be diverted to Modinagar along with the wagons
loaded with coal. Consignments worth roughly Rs. 1,50,000 were in this way di-

verted to Modinagar. Similarly, due to the confusion, consignments worth near-
ly Rs. 2,50,000 belonging to the Modis were diverted to unknown destinations

instead of being transported to Modinagar. These matters were sorted out with
the help of the railway officials. Delhi police was then able to detect the alleged

racket.

Mr. Modi was extremely worried over the case. He approached the then Min-
ister for Home Affairs, Dr. Kailash Nath Katju, and the Minister for Railways, Mr.

Iyengar, and requested that proper investigations should be made before pros-
ecution was launched, for Mr. Modi was of the view that the case, if launched,

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