NEW DELHI: The Joint Parliamentary Committee probing the securities scam on March 10 decided to investigate the question able transactions of the Goldstar Steel and Alloys Company in which the Prime Minister’s son is a director, report agencies.
Giving this information after Wednesday’s proceedings, the JPC chairman, Ram Niwas Mirdha, told newsperson the committee would summon four persons in this connection later this month. They include N.Krishna Mohan, chairman of Goldstar, the former managing director of the Andhra Bank Financial services Ltd (ABFSL), Sundar Babu, its present CMD, C.V,Siva Prasad, and leading Bombay brother Telen Dalal.
The Committee has taken note of the fourth report of the Janakiraman committee, which mentioned a Rs. Two crore deal between ABFSL and Goldstar through Hiten Dalal, which suggested that ABFSL had not “arranged” the loan but in fact had entered into “back to back trans actions,”
Mirdha said the committee had decided to send questionnaires to Dr.Manmohan Singh, B,Shankaranand, Madhavrao Scindia, Chinta Mohan, S.P.Malviya, N.D.Tiwari, Prof Madhu Dandavate, V.P.Singh, Yashwant Sinha and P.Chidambaram, asking them to reply within a week.
Mirdha said the questionnaires, to be dispatched within two days, would among other things, seek a clarification from the ministers and former ministers whether they had any personal transactions pertaining to their ministers.
While Dr.Manmohan Singh would be asked to explain what actions the finance ministry had taken before and after the scam broke out, questionnaires to Shankaran and would relate to the transactions made by Oil India Development Board when he was its chairman, The former petroleum minister, S.P.Malaviya, and the former chemicals and fertilizers minister, Chinta Mohan, will have to reply to queries on deals struck during their tenure.
The JPC will pose similar queries to four former finance ministers, Tiwari, Prof Dandavate, Singh and Sinha while Chidambaram will have to clarify certain specific issues relating to his investments in the controversial Fair growth group of companies. Mirdha said the committee will decide whether to summon the ministers and former ministers as witnesses after scrutinizing their replies.
This is for the first time that a parliamentary committee has been empowered by the Lok Sabha Speaker to send questionnaires and, if necessary, to summon them as witnesses.
Article extracted from this publication >> March 19, 1993
