Suresh Prabhu completed his schooling from Sharadashram Vidya Mandir, Dadar, Mumbai, followed by a Bachelor's degree in Commerce with Honours from M. L. Dahanukar College, Vile Parle, Mumbai and a Bachelor of Law degree from the New Law College (Ruparel College campus), Mumbai.
He has been a Member of the Lok Sabha between 1996 and 2009, spanning the 11th, 12th, 13th, and 14th Lok Sabhas. His constituency comprised the district of Sindhudurg and parts of Ratnagiri district in the state of Maharashtra on the western coast of India. He was also a Member of Rajya Sabha representing Haryana and Andhra Pradesh.[6][7]
Awards and recognition
Suresh Prabhu received the Goud Saraswat Brahmin Samaj Maharatha Award on 18 August 2016.[8][9]
He was featured in the list of top five ministers in India from 2014 to 2017 in terms of performance and accessibility in nationwide surveys conducted by various media outlets.[10][11]
In 2024, Suresh Prabhu won the Lifetime Achievement Award from Economic Policy Group (EPG) which is a private, economic and strategy consulting firm.[12]
Social Work and interests
Founder and Trustee, Manav Sadhan Vikas Sansthan, an NGO [13]
Controversies
Suresh Prabhu has, from time to time, been implicated in illegal/allegedly illegal activities such as:
(a) Buying a flat in the illegally constructed Adarsh housing society in a prime Mumbai location in Colaba. The building was originally meant for war widows of the 1999 Kargil war, ended up being allotted to/ purchased by bureaucrats & politicians, including Suresh Prabhu, who had no connections with the Kargil war,[14][15][16][17]. Suresh Prabhu continues to declare the illegally allotted flat in Adarsh CHS as his asset as per his affidavit of declaration of assets and liabilities filed by him as a member of Rajya Sabha, [18]
(b) the bouncing of cheques, an offence under Indian law, issued by a finance firm — Western India Financial Services — of which Prabhu was Chairman and managing director, besides other firms which were also under investigation,[19]
(c) the sanctioning loans by Saraswat Bank, of which he was Chairman to fake cooperative societies set up by others to misappropriate funds meant as relief for poor cobblers, in the Rs 1000 crores "cobbler scam".[20][21]
(d) Prabhu was also the prime accused in a court case of a banking fraud of over Rs 12 million in Goa from which his name was later dropped on technical grounds.[22]
^BT Investigation (9 September 2011). "Trapped in the Forest Fire". Business Today. Mumbai. Archived from the original on 15 April 2024. Retrieved 16 September 2024.
^Outlook Web Desk (6 February 2022). "Beneficiaries All". Outlook India. New Delhi. Archived from the original on 13 September 2024. Retrieved 13 September 2024.
