Fir Under Senction 420 Filed Against Ub By Delhi Cops

According to the FIR, UB claimed to have applied to the joint secretary, department of economic affairs, ministry of finance, on June 19, 1996, for approval to remit $3.3 million in order to sponsor Benetton Formula Ltd, London.

The ministry, in a letter dated February 4, 1999, rejected the request on the ground that UB's first communication dated May 26, 1997, was received by the ministry only on July 2, 1997, a full year after the sponsorship event had happened.

The FIR mentions that the vigilance division of the department of economic affairs, after verification of records, found that the signature on the acknowledgment of UB's letter of 19 June 1996 does not tally with the signature of the concerned staff and the stamp along with the signature differs in size from the relevant stamp.

 

On 7 December 1999, the department of economic affairs conveyed its findings to the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which was already looking into the case.

Since ED's mandate is to look into cases of foreign exchange violation alone, the matter was passed on to the economic offences wing of the crime branch of Delhi Police. On June 24, 2000, an FIR was filed in the Parliament Street police station.

Interestingly, the FIR does not name anyone as a criminal. "That will happen only after the investigations are over," deputy commissioner of police Dinesh Bhatt of the economic offences wing, crime branch, Delhi Police, told Business Standard.

"If found guilty, the promoters of the company could face a prison term of up to seven years," Bhatt added.

An e-mail to Vijay Mallya, followed by reminders, failed to elicit a response.

Meanwhile, the economic offences wing has kicked off the enquiry by asking the finance ministry for further details of the case.

In a related development, on August 22, 2000, the minister of state in the ministry of finance V Dhananjaya Kumar, in response to an unstarred question (No. 3186) in the Rajya Sabha, stated that it has been alleged that in January 1996, UB had made a commitment of $3.3 million for paying the sponsorship fee to Mild Seven Benetton Renault Team of UK.

"Investigation has been taken up but certain inquiries are pending in (the) UK and some information is awaited from the chairman of the UB group," the minister's reply stated.