order for each 200-ml bottle is only Rs 29.50 – again, much lower than the rate approved for GRD Pharmaceuticals. 

The documents point at NHM receiving hand sanitisers from at least seven other Assam-based firms on April 2, 2020. The RTI replies cited the name of the firms, the date of delivery of the hand sanitisers to the NHM, and the quantity of bottles received, but do not mention the rate at which those sanitisers were procured by the health department, nor the quantity delivered in those bottles.   

What the annexures confirm is that GRD Pharmaceuticals carried out the largest supply of hand sanitisers to the health department. Between March 11 and May 29, 2020, the company supplied 36,600 bottles of 500-ml hand sanitiser bottles and another 500 of the 100-ml packs. 

While the rate of the March 18, 2020, ‘urgent’ order and the March 26, 2020 ‘urgent’ order for Handrub sanitisers to GRD Pharmaceuticals were approved at Rs 231.87 for a 500-ml bottle, the price for the rest at which the deliveries were made by the company – between March 11 and 18, 2020 and on May 29, 2020 –  could not be ascertained as NHM did not provide those specific work orders to us. 

However, in total, the RTI replies have shown that Dhanuka’s firm supplied 36,600 Handrub bottles to the state NHM and at least from two of the seven orders it can be confirmed to have received a high rate as part of the ‘urgent supply order’.  

Accusations of misappropriation of funds

Dhanuka’s firms have been at the centre of controversies during the course of the pandemic. Accusations against his firms for allegedly misappropriating funds in procurement of essentials to meet the COVID-19 challenge had surfaced in Assam in mid-2020. On June 24, 2020, the Assamese daily with one of the largest circulations in the state, Asamiya Pratidin, had flashed a front page article accusing Dhanuka and some other Guwahati-based businessmen of “running a syndicate” to provide COVID-related emergency supplies to the health department at an exorbitant rate. 

Two Guwahati-based civil society organisations – Assam Public Works (APW) and Durniti Virodhi Yuva Shakti (DVYS) – also pursued the matter. APW, on July 23, 2020, in an open letter to the then Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal, demanded a probe into supply of six emergency items – N95 masks, three-layered masks, PPE kits, disposable gloves, hand sanitisers and melathin – by the two firms owned by Dhanuka along with some other local suppliers. APW accused them of running “a mafia” in the state health department “without the knowledge of the health minister”.

APW’s letter, published on July 20, 2020 on the front page of Asamiya Pratidin had particularly claimed that as many as 295 bidders had applied to the state government seeking the contract worth Rs 71 crore to supply those items. “Companies of international repute like Mafatlal and Apollo International had bid for those contracts to supply the items. However, violating the CVC (central vigilance commission) guidelines and GFR (general financial rules) guidelines, the state unit of NHM didn’t disclose who won the bid and didn’t upload the information on its site,” the letter reportedly said.

“Because of the, the common man in Assam remained in the dark as to who supplied those items. Non-disclosure of the name of the supplier is a clear violation of the rules of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) on procurement of public goods,” the report read, quoting the letter.

In a press statement on July 24, 2020, DVYS had stated that while a 100-ml bottle of Handrub sanitiser produced by GRD Pharmaceuticals is sold by the company at a wholesale rate of Rs 29.46, it supplied 500-ml bottles of the same sanitiser to NHM at a whopping Rs 231.87 – Rs 84.57 more than what the price should have been. 

The rate quoted then by DVYS for the 500-ml bottle of Handrub matches the government record shared through RTI replies with The Cross Current. 

In response to those accusations attracting public scrutiny, former business associate of Sarma’s wife, Rajib Bora, who was also one of the suppliers of the ‘urgent work orders’ issued during the national lockdown by the health department, filed a case at the court of the civil judge Rajeev Kumar Deka, Kamrup (Metro), on July 24, 2020. The case was against APW founder Abjijit Sarma and the editor of a local channel, Pratibimba Live. Bora, who supplied PPE kits to the NHM, accused them of defamation and demanded compensation for it. 

The last hearing of the case was on May 20, 2022.

When contacted, Abhijit Sarma told The Wire, “I can’t go into the details of the case with media anymore as there is now an injunction on the matter and the case is being heard at the court.”

The Sarma regime has recently extended Assam Police security to Ghanshyam Dhanuka, a rare facility to a state-based businessman