Sebi asked for more details

New Delhi, Dec. 22: The government on Tuesday asked Sebi to furnish more details on the investigation it had done in the case of RIL allegedly routing funds to dummy companies for buying its own shares in 2000.

“We have said that this is an old case which they (Sebi) should have apparently investigated. What is the outcome of the investigation, we really would like to know. Tell us the benefit of the report on the investigation in order to apply our minds to it,” the corporate affairs minister, Mr Salman Khurshid, said.

“We have asked if they (Sebi) have more material on it (RIL), they can provide it to us. All I can say is it was very inadequate material for us to act upon,” he said. “It’s not clear that if it is a matter concerned with securities, whether Sebi should look into it. Also, when Justice Srikrishna has given his opinion, what took them six months to refer it to us. We have sought all this clarity,” he said.

Earlier in the day, he told reporters that “Sebi’s letter has to be taken seriously... The government does not want to anticipate anything. If Sebi has taken nine years, let us take at least nine days”. He, however, cautioned that nobody would be allowed to “dig old graves”.

Asked for his comments on Sebi’s communication to the ministry earlier this month, he told reporters, “The regulator will do its work. If anybody tries to exert pressure, we will not work under pressure”. The Sebi was probing a complaint by S. Gurumurthy of the Swadeshi Jagran Manch alleging that RIL and its investors lost at least Rs 2,700 crore in issuance of shares at a much lower price than what was allocated to the state-owned UTI.