SC admits Hiten’s petition

However, the bench declined to stay the fine imposed on the accused and gave them two week time to deposit the amount with the authorities.

Special Judge M S Rane had convicted Dalal, chief dealer of Canara Bank Financial Services Ltd (Canfina) Ashok Kumar, and seven others for causing a loss of Rs 59 crore in various transactions in securities worth Rs 494 crore in 1991.

Other convicts are S Mohan (Canfina dealer), A D Narottam, S Ramaswamy (both stock brokers), C S Raje, Sudhakar Ail (both employees of Bank of Karad), K K Kapadia and M K Kushte (director and accountantrespectively of Metropolitan Cooperative Bank).

CBI, which investigated the matter, had alleged that Canfina purchased 35 crore UTI units from Bank of Karad in 1991 through broker Hiten Dalal but 26 crore units were not delivered to Canfina due to liquidation of the Bank of Karad.

As a result, Canfina had to purchase the units from open market at a higher value and in the process suffered a loss of over Rs 59 crore. The special judge convicted all the accused under various Sections of Indian Penal Code and Prevention of Corruption Act for causing loss to Canfina and also imposed fines on them on various counts.

The first judgement in the scam was delivered on August 26 last year when the special court of Justice S N Variava convicted Hiten Dalal and others for defrauding Canfina by siphoning off Rs 33 crore in 1992.

All the convicts were charged for offences under Section 120 (B) IPC (conspiracy with common design) read with Section 409 IPC (criminal breach of trust).

Significantly, the specialjudge acquitted stock brokers Bhupen Dalal and J P Gandhi and industrialist T B Ruia saying there was no evidence against them.