In a breakthrough in the probe into the Rs 595-crore (Rs 5.95 billion) scam that shook the capital market, the Central Bureau of Investigation arrested the director of DSQ software company Dinesh Dalmia in New Delhi, ending a three-year search for him.
Dalmia, against whom an Interpol Red Corner Notice had been issued, was taken on a transit remand to be produced before the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Egmore, Chennai, where a case against him is pending.
The accused was nabbed late on Saturday night from a South Delhi location by the sleuths of CBI's Bank Fraud and Securities Cell.
He had fled the country in December 2003 and set up a base in the US after it came to light that his company's Rs 595 crore preferential allotment during the 2000-01 bull run in the stock markets was a fraud.
Dalmia, accused of criminal breach of trust, cheating and fraud, is alleged to have induced National Securities Depository Limited to dematerialise and credit 130 lakh (13 million) equity shares of the software company as fully paid shares.
The 130 lakh shares were transferred allegedly by Dalmia to his front companies and entities without payment of sale considerations. These shares were then illegally sold at stock exchanges through brokers notwithstanding the fact that these shares were unalloted or unlisted and prohibited for trading, the CBI charged.
Dalmia is accused by CBI of having misappropriated the sale proceeds of these shares amounting Rs 594.88 crore (Rs 9.948 billion) and diverted the money to group companies controlled by him.
CBI produced Dalmia before link Metropolitan Magistrate Sanjiv Jain on Monday who granted permission to the probe agency to transfer Dalmia to Chennai to be produced before Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate.
Dalmia's passport was revoked by the regional passport officer in Chennai in April last year on the request of the CBI after he was traced in the United States after fleeing the country in December 2003.
Despite being summoned by the court, the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate issued an open-ended non-bailable warrant of arrest against Dalmia.
The news of his arrest was also music to the ears of the Kolkata police who were gearing up to seek his remand in the 2001 stock scam which had led to acute payment crisis at the Calcutta Stock Exchange and finally to the crash of the stock markets across the country.
Police in Kolkata had started investigations into the case after Calcutta Stock Exchange authorities filed an FIR in 2002 and subsequently 18 persons, including some senior officials of CSE were arrested.
