ED given two months to complete probe against RIL, Romesh

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Arijit Passayat and Justice D K Jain said, "After perusing the affidavit by ED, we find some progress has been made in the investigation."

Asking Additional Solicitor General (ASG) K K Sud to tell the concerned officials to ensure the safety of the records, the bench said in view of the progress made by the ED "we feel that it will be appropriate to give them two months time."

Submitting a status report on the investigation into the matter, Sud said a penalty of Rs 25 lakh each had been imposed by ED on Romesh Sharma, a local firm M/S Next One and its owner Ajay Nayar for FERA violation related to the export of garments worth 3.45 lakh dollars some years ago.

Nayar, who had been declared a proclaimed offender and is now based in New York, had been directed to repatriate the 3.45 lakh dollar export proceeds to India, Sud said during the hearing of a Public Interest writ, seeking direction to CBI and ED to expedite probe against RIL for alleged irregularties and its links with Romesh Sharma.

The ED in its affidavit said three businessmen — Rajiv Pathak, Mukund Pathak and Arvind Samant — had been examined by the Directorate last month regarding remittance received by RIL for the export of dal in the garb of yarn in early nineties.

The Directorate said these businessmen were questioned about the source of the "remittance, which had not originated from M/S Al-Maroof", to whom the export of "Dal" was allegedly made, but had come from some other sources.

"There was a deep rooted conspiracy between Rajiv Pathakand others to substitute yarn with Dal," the affidavit said.

The Public Interest writ was filed by Janata PartyPresident Subramanian Swamy following which, the court had issued notices to the Centre, CBI, ED, Registrar of Companies and RIL.

RIL in its affidavit had said the contents of Swamy’spetition were entirely based on media reports and the cases referred by him had been adjudicated by the courts long back.

CBI earlier had informed the court that it was examiningcertain documents recovered from the office of RIL and premises of one of its official.

Swamy, today moved an application before the benchseeking court’s custody of all the relevant files related to UTI’s dealings with RIL.

He also sought direction to CBI official Y P Singh, whohad allegedly recommended registration of a case against RIL during the investigation of Panna-Mukta oil field deal, to file an affidavit clarifying his position.