Govt crackdown on CRB

The CBI late last night registered an FIR against bhansali, his company and some State Bank of India SBI officials for 8220;defrauding and siphoning off Rs 57 crore.8221;

The investigating agency has alerted all airports and checking immigration records to find if Bhansali and his family members have fled the country. It has also sought the help of chief vigilance officers of all banks to report any fraud or Bhansali8217;s dealings with the banks.

The CBI team is to meet officials of the RBI, SBI and SEBI shortly to investigate into the affairs of the company floated by Bhansali.

The capital market regulator today called trustees of CRB mutual fund also floated by Bhansali for an emergency meeting but it found that trustees were either not available or had resigned. The legal implications of this were being examined, SEBI officials said.

An interim report obtained by SEBI from M/s Kalyaniwala Mistry, the firm appointed by SEBI a few months ago to inspect the CRB mutual fund for the second time, shows several irregularities, which, SEBI said, are being looked into.

SEBI has also prohibited CRB Capital Market Ltd as Category I merchant banker from undertaking any activity.