Scam Custodian Slaps Case Against 24 Parties
Following a series of investigations, it has been unearthed that large chunks of ACC, ITC and Tata Tea benami shares were either introduced or sold in the market, which belonged to Harshad Mehta and other HSM group members.
The case No 92/1996 was filed before the Special Court headed by Justice S N Variava two weeks ago by the officer on special duty at the custodians office.
The hearing on the case is expected to begin shortly.
The custodian is now seeking the recovery of amounts (equivalent to the benami shares sold) amongst the accused parties, with the main contention that these shares should be considered as attached property of the court and payments must be made thereof.
According to the petition a copy of which is available with Business Standard, the respondent No 1 (Acharya Arun Dev) was, inter alia, connected with the introduction/sale of a large quantity of banami shares belonging to respondent No 23 (Harshad Mehta) and other notified members of the HSM group after June 8, 1992.
The investigations were carried out by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and other agencies.
The petitioner is bringing the aforesaid information to the notice of the court so that the court can take necessary action for the recovery of the attached property, as per law, the petition states.
The custodian, A K Menon, said seeking the physical possession of the shares at this stage would directly affect the stock markets andtherefore, he was seeking recovery of the
amounts.
The main prayer set out by the custodian is that Arun Dev and 18 other respondents, Harshad Mehta and his brother Sudhir Mehta, and or their directors thereof be committed to civil prison for contempt of court by illegally and unauthorisedly dealing with attached property which was in the custody of the court.
It was argued that shares in questoin were fraudulently disposed off for wrongful gains by the parties.
The parties, jointly and severally, have been ordered to return to the custodian these large amounts of shares together with the rights, bonuses and dividends that have been accrued thereon, since the event or to pay to the custodian the current monetary value thereof.