Anil Ambani camp turns heat on Meswani

The row between the two Ambani sides took a new turn today when a spokesman for Reliance Industries vice-chairman and managing director Anil Ambani accused Reliance Industries executive director Nikhil Meswani of deliberately misleading the media and investors on family issues, and said that Meswani was not involved in the family discussions and so had no locus standi in the matter.

A spokesperson for Reliance Industries strongly refuted these allegations. "All allegations against Meswani are baseless," the spokesperson added.

The Anil Ambani spokesman said: "He's been saying that 90 per cent of the family settlement has been done and that only loose ends have to be tied up. This is complete hogwash."

He also said that Meswani had never been a part of the family settlement discussions, had never attended one meeting and asked why Meswani had been telling the media that a settlement was due in one or two weeks.

"He's been proven wrong time and again. We've been saying that nothing is imminent." the Anil Ambani spokesman said.

But the Reliance Industries spokesman privately questioned the assertion that Meswani had been briefing the media. The Anil Ambani spokesman also said that Meswani's briefings violate SEBI (Prohibition of Fraudulent and Unfair Trade Practices) Regulations and Insider Trading Regulations.

"He's a full-time executive director on the Reliance Industries board. This is price sensitive information. He cannot go around making statements as an executive director "" when he knows that a settlement is not around the corner."