Nine top Reliance officials charged
THE Registrar of Companies has filed charges against Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), India's largest private sector company, for alleged transgressions in the management of its shareholder register, the polyester-maker said.
The charges are the culmination of a year-long controversy over the way it replaced share certificates for an investor who claimed to have lost the originals. The company also is alleged to have registered institutional shareholders as owning certificates different to the ones they bought.
The registrar filed 29 charges against the company, its shareholder services affiliate, Reliance Consultancy Services (RCS), and nine senior officials, newspapers reported. Some of the charges claim intent to defraud.
Dhirubhai Ambani and his sons, Mukesh and Anil, who run RIL, were issued summonses by the Bombay metropolitan magistrate to appear in court before October 15.
The summonses against the industrialists were issued after a criminal complaint filed against them and eight others on the issue of switching of RIL shares by the in-house registrars, RCS.
The 29 counts include the switching of 7.03 million RIL shares which had been lodged for transfer with RCS in November 1995 by the Unit Trust of India. When the share certificates were returned, it was noticed by UTI executives that they were not the same ones that had been forwarded for transfer.
Another complaint relates to duplicate shares issued to Mr Ambani's doctor although RCS was allegedly aware the original shares still existed.
