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| UTI EX-CHIEF may let the secret out on 4 names |
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The Unit Trust of India drama is entering a really spine chilling and suspenseful phase with the news that ex-boss P.S. Subramanyam, now in CBI custody, may let the bombshell blow up and let the nation know as who the 4 alleged culprits are. He had earlier given the 4 names to the CBI and had given a complete twist and spin to his ongoing interrogation by the CBI. AND THAT’S WOW as the man has certainly has an ace up his sleeve.
The CBI has also not made these names public and counsel for the CBI B.S. Jaisinghani said the bureau is currently investigating the information that Mr Subramanyam has given them.
Anybody can say any names. We have to verify the information and Mr Jaisinghani said he himself has not been told the names and only knows that Mr Subramanyam has threatened to make these names public. Sources close to Mr Subra-manyam imply that there is a much larger agenda in Mr Subramanyam’s scheme of things and in asking his counsel to keep the names secret, these sources say he is leveraging this information against being released from CBI custody on the charge that his actions in the Cyberspace case had caused wrongful loss of around Rs 32 crores to UTI. WHAT A STAGE THIS COLORFUL THRILLER HAS REACHED AND HOPE THE SHERLOCK HOLMES REPLICAS IN THE DRAMA WOULD GLEAN THE TRUTH AND LET THE INVESTORS KNOW AS TO WHAT HAPPENED AND WHY.
The names being leaked out are HOLD YOUR BREATH are big guns and men with immense aura of power around them and they are > Mr Brajesh Mishra, Mr N.K. Singh and chairman of the Securities and Exchange Board of India D.R. Mehta. Mr Maneshinde had, on Friday, already told the special court of Mr S.R. Mehra that finance minister Yashwant Sinha used to regularly call his client and discuss policy issues connected with UTI. Mr Sinha, he alleged, also told Mr Subramanyam to pay attention to development demands of backward states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar and this was one of the factors that weighed with him when deciding on the private placement in Cyberspace. It is also being alleged that Mr Subramanyam had taped all the conversations, which dealt with policy issues, or unofficial directives that were given to him on UTI matters and that these tapes have been given to chief minister of Tamil Nadu Jayalalitha. However, Mr Maneshinde neither confirms nor denies the existence of the tapes and says a cryptic "no comment" when asked about them and the plausibility of the tapes story hinges on the fact that in most major corporations and institutions, taping sensitive departments is routine.
This was revealed, for instance, in the case where the conversation between the former president of the Bombay Stock Exchange and surveillance department officials of the BSE was available on tape as a matter of routine and many people in sensitive positions use prepaid mobile phones to circumvent their phone calls being monitored by the police or investigative authorities. The phone numbers too are changed every time the prepaid card expires and these sources say Mr Subramanyam will decide only in court whether to make the names public or not and there is a strong suspicion that Mr Subramanyam is leveraging his information to secure a better deal for himself.
However, when confronted with this, sources deny that Mr Subramanyam was entering into any deals with the government. However, they add cryptically, they would consider (a deal) depending on how things progressed on or before August 3 and they said that it would also depend on how seriously the CBI was investigating the names given by Mr Subramanyam. Interestingly, on Friday both sides, ie Mr P.S. Subramanyam and the CBI, arrived at a "consensus" that he would be released on August 3 and Mr Jaisinghani said if there was any more sensitive material that came to light, then they would have to ask for his further custody, otherwise they would release him.
Hear this > CBI set to tap MTNL, BPL Mobile on Subramanyam
THE CBI has sought details of mobile phone calls made and received by former UTI top boss P S Subramanyam over the past few years and these details have been sought from BPL Mobile, the cellular operator used by Subramanyam, the CBI has also sought details of landline calls made by Subramanyam from MTNL, the basic service provider for Mumbai. But CBI will not be able to get details of telephone conversations of Subramanyam as these records are not maintained by cellular companies and indeed its is illegal for cellular operators to record conversations unless they have permission to do so from the government. However, the CBI will be able to get a list of the numbers to which calls were made by Subramanyam, numbers from which calls were received by him and the duration of these calls.
Cellular operators are under law, required to maintain details of billings of customers for at least a year. However, digging up details of past years may not be impossible as these could be obtained from the archives, with billing systems of most operators being automated, past details of phone calls may not be difficult to obtain. In the case of MTNL too, the recordings of telephone conversations are not available, but billing details can be furnished to the investigative agencies and investigative agencies are allowed to record telephone conversations, after following a specific procedure laid down by law. Live conversations can therefore be tracked and taped but the operators do not record conversations and at times on specific complaints, telecom operators do monitor telephone calls to check for fraud.
CBI is currently probing the role of Subramanyam in the Cyberspace investment scam’ where an initial decision not to invest in the company was reversed and Subramanyam is now in CBI custody and the investigative agency has informed the court that it has made progress in collecting evidence. UTI has been facing allegations of investing in companies, which were stockbroker, Ketan Parekh favourites and SEBI’s preliminary report into the recent stock market scam has said that UTI was creating a benchmark for the scrip prices of these scrips. A three-member panel has already been set up by the government to probe investments made by UTI over the past 10 years.
UTI takes a grip with potential Rs 1,700 cr pay-out
Close to tying up enough funds to meet US-64 redemption pressure, the beleaguered Unit Trust of India (UTI) is currently working out various options to meet additional redemptions of up to Rs 1,700 crore. That is because before January 1, 2002, five closed-ended schemes of UTI are facing closure and the entire pay-out works out to the tune of Rs 1,700 crore and these schemes are Monthly Income Plan 1996 (III) (Rs 405.11 crore), Deferred Income Plan 1991 (Rs 259 crore), UTI IISFUS 1996 (Rs 117.14 crore), UGS 5000 (Rs 201.47 crore) and MIP 1994 (IV) Cumulative (Rs 805.98 crore).
Though no concrete decision has been taken on how to finance this additional cash outflow, UTI chairman M Damodaran had hinted at using the bank funds for this purpose. Talking on the issue, UTI executive director BG Daga said that no plans have been finalized for other schemes' redemption and said that when the schemes near closure, we alert the investors one month before and request them to reinvest in other UTI schemes. So absolute payout by closure of schemes is quite unlikely and we would finalize a package to meet those actual redemption pressure. However, sources added that due to the current US-64 crisis and poor performance of other schemes, hardly any investor will be interested in reinvesting in UTI schemes and according to latest estimates, over 12 schemes of UTI are quoting below par.
Analysts added that reinvestments used to occur up to 40 per cent of the corpus, though in the current circumstances these estimates are quite ambitious and in a worse case scenario, the trust may announce conversion of some closed-ended funds to open-ended funds, though there is no precedence. Once a scheme is converted to an open-ended scheme, investors will have the choice to remain in the scheme and already eight public sector banks have given commitments in the range of Rs 6,000 crore and disbursements will happen only to the extent of redemption pressures on US-64.
BoB offer Rs 300cr to UTI at sub-PLR
The BANK of Baroda has offered Rs 300 crore at sub-PLR rate of 10 per cent to Unit Trust of India, and is eager to renew the credit line after six months if the fund faces redemption pressure for its flagship scheme US-64 and its chairman P S Shenoy said that we have offered Rs 300 crore to UTI against government securities, the loan would be extended at sub-PLR of 10 per cent. After the State Bank of India, which is believed to have extended a credit line of Rs 1,500 crore at sub-prime lending rate of 10.5 per cent, the credit line of BoB is perhaps the biggest amount at competitive rate.
UTI was in talks with all major PSU banks for credit facility to ensure that it does not face liquidity pressure while redeeming units of US-64, whose repurchase and sale was frozen on July 2, 2001 and Shenoy said the bank had approached UTI with the credit offer at 10 per cent sub-PLR rate, after the fund sought lines of credit from SBI to bailout US-64, the loan to UTI is at short-term or sub-PLR, but it could be renewable after six months. BoB lends at three rates > short-term or sub-PLR (below 180 days) at 10 per cent, PLR at 11 per cent and long-term PLR (more than one year) at 11.50 per cent and Shenoy said the investment by the bank in UTI was safe as it was backed by government securities and not equity. The bank has a comfortable capital adequacy ratio of 12.5 per cent as on June 30, 2001. |
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