SC clears Dinesh Dalmia investigation

The Supreme Court yesterday made it clear that investigation into the alleged involvement of the DSQ group chief Dinesh Dalmia could be carried on.

A bench of the apex court, comprising Justice B M Agarwal and Justice G P Mathur, made the comment while hearing a case between Kolkata Police, the investigative agency, and Dalmia.

The DSQ group chief had earlier obtained a stay order from Madras High Court against the arrest order issued by Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Kolkata.

Supreme Court also reprimanded Dalmia for not filing affidavit in reply which he was to file within four weeks from December 8, the last date of hearing of the case.

Soumen Mitra, deputy commissioner, detective department of Kolkata Police, said the investigation against Dalmia would further be stepped up following the Supreme Court comment. Dalmia has been managing to escape the reach of the city sleuths for over one-and-a-half years.

The police, tipped by the arrested city stock brokers, had obtained a warrant from the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) of Kolkata in October last to arrest Dinesh Dalmia, promoter of DSQ Software, DSQ Industries and DSQ Biotech, but failed to serve the warrant.

The allegations against Dalmia were two-fold. One, he reportedly gave 10 lakh fake shares of DSQ Software to Harish Biyani, a defaulter, who, in turn deposited them with CSE. And two, he was reportedly in collusion with Stock Holding Corporation of India Ltd (SHCIL) and Biyani to abuse the sell-n-cash product of SHCIL. Both Biyani and B V Goud, former chairman of SHCIL, suffered three-months imprisonment.

Industry sources said Dalmia, a local person who shifted to Chennai, had "good relations" with defaulting trio, namely Dinesh Singhania, Harish Biyani and Ashok Poddar, for long.

Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) was believed to have been looking for Dalmia for alleged violation of Foreign Exchange Regulations Act (FERA). FERA, it may be mentioned, was no longer in vouge now after it was replaced by Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA).