Search the Internet          Tips  Sites: Finance, Investment

HC seeks CBI record on UTI's investment in RIL

The Delhi high court on Friday sought a reply from the CBI whether a probe into UTI's investment in Reliance Industries Ltd was blocked by the finance ministry during the tenure of P Chidambaram and directed the agency to produce entire records related to the case on September 29.

A division bench, comprising Chief Justice Arijit Passayat and Justice D K Jain, issued the direction to the Central Bureau of Investigation to file an affidavit in this regard after perusing its earlier affidavit on the status of the probe.

The investigating agency had said in the affidavit that 'in response to a self-contained note sent by it to the finance ministry on May 24, 1996 regarding alleged irregularities in the placement of funds to the tune of Rs 9.45 billion by UTI, LIC and GIC in Reliance equities, the ministry vide a letter on December 24, 1996 stated registration of a case for further investigation did not seem to be warranted."

Admitting that the finance ministry had sent such a letter to the CBI, its counsel K N Bhat said records would be placed before the court for its perusal.

The court was hearing a public interest litigation filed by Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy, seeking a thorough probe into alleged financial irregularities committed by RIL in connivance with the high government officials.

Swamy said: "It is clear from the statement of Union Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha in Parliament and the CBI affidavit that the government in 1996 had blocked the probe into the UTI's investment, leading to present state of affairs in it."

He also sought probe into 'vanishing' of CBI's case file prepared by its SP, Y P Singh on probe into the RIL matters.

The UTI Crisis