COMMENTARY
INTERVIEWS
SPECIALS
CHAT
ARCHIVES
SEARCH REDIFF

Harshad and others to be sentenced on Tuesday in MUL-linked scam

Securities scam accused Harshad Mehta has been found guilty by the Bombay high court under the sections and provisions of the Indian Penal Code for misappropriating funds of Maruti Udyog Limited.

A special court headed by Justice M S Rane found Mehta and three others guilty in the sensational case where they are alleged to have hatched a criminal conspiracy and defrauded the funds of MUL to the tune of Rs 389.7 million.

The others who have been found guilty along with former stockbroker Mehta are Pramod Kumar Moncha, former deputy manager (finance) of MUL, V N Deosthali, former assistant manager of United Commercial Bank and Ram Narayan Popli, former official of ANZ Grindlays Bank. Another alleged accused, Ambuj Jain, has been exonerated and given benefit of doubt. Justice Rane will deliver the period of conviction tomorrow.

The prosecutor, the Central Bureau of Investigation, has in its chargesheet alleged that the accused in criminal conspiracy has misappropriated four cheques aggregating to Rs 389.7 million drawn by MUL on Canara Bank in favour of ANZ Grindlays Bank.

The cheque numbers and the details of the misappropriation allegedly committed by Mehta were submitted to the court. The amount was drawn by MUL on its bankers, Canara Bank, Sansad Marg branch, New Delhi in favour of Grindlays Bank.

The prosecution alleged that the accused conspired and committed punishable offence under Section 403 of the IPC. The judge found that the accused has criminally conspired and committed the offence. However, the court while convicting Mehta and three others, gave Jain the benefit of doubt.

The CBI found Manocha guilty of criminal conspiracy as a public servant, being the deputy manager of finance in MUL and conspiring with Mehta.

Manocha dishonestly delivered 3.5 million units of the Unit Trust of India valued at Rs 49.9 million to Mohan Khandelwal, the then manager of Harshad Mehta's firm at New Delhi. Khandalwal later turned approver and deposed against Mehta.

The CBI also alleged that another accused Vinayak Deosthali, who is a UCO bank official, forged a letter on January 23, 1991 with a dishonest intent and authorised remittance of funds to Bank of America, New Delhi, amounting to Rs 49.945 million.

He is also alleged to have connived with Manocha in transferring the UTI shares to Khandelwal. In this process, he was found to have forged several letters and has been found guilty under the sections of the IPC.

Another accused, Ram Narayan Popli, an officer of the ANZ Grindlays Bank, instead of crediting the Grindlays Bank account, favoured the Big Bull, by transferring money to the tune of Rs 50.503 million in Mehta's account.

The stock markets reacted wildly to the development.

UNI

ALSO SEE:

Seven years on: Securities scam victims share their grief

The Harshad Mehta Chat Transcript

Business