Indian corruption probe targets Dow

India’s Central Bureau of Investigation is exploring allegations that Dow Agro Sciences India Ltd. Mumbai (formerly DE-Nocil) paid government officials to expedite the registrations to sell and distribute pesticides.

The alleged bribery was uncovered by the US Securities and Exchange Commission, which fined Dow Chemicals $325,000 in 2007 for influencing officials in India to fast-track permission to sell their pesticide brands that are banned in the US and many other countries, according to a report by the Indo-Asian News Service (IANS).

The SEC charged the company with violations under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) for letting a subsidiary use funds for illegal activities in a foreign country. The order was passed after Dow voluntarily approached Commission staff with the results of an internal investigation of DE-Nocil.

CBI spokesperson Harsh Bhal said the CBI has filed charges against Ratan Lal Rajak, a former plant protection advisor to the government, and a middleman, identified only as Satyabroto, in the court of a special judge in Ambala, Haryana for accepting bribes from Dow Agro, reports IANS. The officials are said to have accepted $32,000 in cash and jewelery while their travel and hotel expenses were also picked up by a subsidiary of Dow Chemicals, which took over the Union Carbide company after the 1984 Bhopal gas leak tragedy, to push its substandard pesticides in the Indian market.

The then managing director of Dow Agro, who is a British citizen, and two firms linked with Satyabroto, Agro Pack and Crop Health Products Ltd, are also mentioned in the charge sheet for corrupt deals.

According to the CBI charge sheet, Rajak was a member of all the three committees of the Faridabad-based Central Insecticides Board and Registration that granted permission for the sale of DE-Nocil products - Nurelle D, Pride and Drusban 10G - in India.