E-Paper
Anil's complaints to be probed
An Ambani settlement will not stop a probe into the charges of 'mis-governance' made by him.
A settlement between the Ambani brothers over the ownership of Reliance group will not stop a probe into the charges made by the younger sibling Anil, Company Affairs Minister Prem Chand Gupta said on Wednesday.
"Once a complaint is filed, we have to have a certain procedure to follow," Gupta said when asked about the status of various probes into allegations of corporate mis-governance in Reliance levelled by Anil Ambani.
"You must understand the government has its own way of working," he said on the margins of a seminar on corporate governance organised by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India.
Gupta said he was awaiting a report from the Registrar of Companies on the charges made by Anil Ambani before the Department of Company Affairs takes appropriate action.
During the course of a bitter ownership struggle with his brother Mukesh for the Rs 990 billion ($22.7 billion) Reliance group of companies, Anil Ambani had raised a host of issues related with corporate governance in the Reliance group.
The Department of Company Affairs, the finance ministry and the Securities and Exchange Board of India were among the government departments and agencies Anil had approached with his complaints.
Even after the ownership issue was resolved Saturday, Anil Ambani had maintained at a press conference that he had not made the charges without basis and that it was for the various authorities to decide how to proceed in the matter.
The younger Ambani, whose group is named Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Enterprises, has control over Reliance Infocomm, Reliance Capital and Reliance Energy, while his brother controls Reliance Industries and Indian Petrochemicals Corporation.
