ED’s Miss World ghost is back to haunt Big B

Reacting to the ED’s show-cause notices, Amar Singh, who is on the board of ABCL, said: ‘‘A similar query was made with a South African company and it was found that no financial transaction was made between the two companies…I know there was no wrongdoing though I joined AB Corp’s Board after the Miss World event. In any case, business transactions were looked after by Sanjiv Gupta who is now the CEO of Coke, Bachchan did not involve himself with the day-to-day working of the company.’’ The ED refers to Bachchan, who was the then chairman of ABCL and Sanjiv Gupta, the then CEO, as responsible for the ‘‘conduct of business of the said company.’’

Incidentally, all cases related to FERA have to be completed before May 31 when the FERA of 1973 lapses to give way to the Foreign Exchange Management Act of 1999.

The ED has alleged that due to the the failure of ABCL in receiving the fee of $600,000 from Marketing and Promotional Services without any permission of the RBI, ‘‘Amitabh Bachchan and Sanjiv Gupta appear to have contravened the provisions of Section 16 (1) of FERA and have rendered themselves liable to be proceeded against under Section 50 ofthe said Act read with Section 49 (3) and 49 (4) of the FEMA for the said contravention.’’