Kangan to Kingfisher

From treasuries in Kashmir to financial empires and pilgrim betrayals, India’s scandals reveal how oversight gaps, opaque systems, and weak accountability threaten public trust.

- Syed Nissar H Gilani

In 1958, a scandal in Kangan, a small town in Kashmir, shook the valley and left a mark that lasts even today.

A Naib Tehsildar looted Rs. 85,000 from the local treasury and framed his peon. The peon bore the weight of a crime he did not commit, suffering years of hardship and dying of a heart attack before the truth came out.

Investigators later punished the officer, but the state restored him with promotions and arrears. The injustice, the reversal, left a bitter imprint on local memory.

This early scandal in Kashmir foreshadowed patterns seen across India.

In 1948, V.K. Krishna Menon, India’s High Commissioner to the UK, bypassed protocol to order hundreds of jeeps worth lakhs of rupees. Questions of transparency and accountability eventually reached the highest offices.

‘The Jeep Scandal hinted at a recurring tension in governance: ambitious officials moving faster than rules and leaving citizens to untangle the aftermath.