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April 10, 2001
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Ketan admits receiving funds from Zee, HFCL

Ashwin Punnen & George Smith Alexander

Leading stockbroker Ketan Parekh, who has been remanded till April 12 to CBI custody, has admitted to the investigating agency that he had received funds from Zee group companies and HFCL.

He has told CBI that two of his companies-Classic Credit and Panther Fincap & Management-had received funds from associate companies of these corporates to the tune of Rs 7 billion.

CBI sources said that Parekh had told the agency that one of his companies, Classic Credit, had received Rs 5 billion from associate companies of Zee and Siti Cable. This money was received by Parekh in the second week of March. He used the funds for the pay-ins at the stock exchanges. Zee had borrowed this money from Global Trust Bank and routed this fund through Digital Super Highway.

When contacted, the head of finance of Essel Group, A C Saha said that the group had borrowed Rs 2 billion as short-term loans from GTB, the bulk of which has been repaid.

Zee used this money to buy 28.5 per cent in ABCL Ltd, 15 per cent in B4U and other media and entertainment stocks. "No loan was given to any broker," he said.

Sources added that Parekh has also admitted that his group company-Panther Fincap & Management-had received Rs 2 billion from an HFCL group company. HFCL had raised this money from ICICI and UTI. UTI had subscribed to a Rs 500 million non-convertible debenture of HFCL. The remaining Rs 1.50 billion was taken from ICICI.

HFCL group chairman Mahendra Nahata said, "We have not lent any money to any broker to play the stock market." When contacted, GTB officials said that Zee had borrowed Rs 1.50 billion from the bank for normal business purposes in the first week of March. Out of this, Rs 500 million has been returned by the company last week.

Sources in ICICI said that HFCL is one of the assisted companies of the financial institution. "We provide them with financial assistance as and when required," sources in ICICI said without quantifying the exact amount of loan given in March.

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