Harshad scam: Court wants 650cr released

Mumbai: In a fresh round of distribution of liquidated assets of the Harshad Mehta group, a special court has directed the release of Rs 650 crore. For the first time in almost two decades since the scam, Standard Chartered Bank is finally getting an interim amount of Rs 345.76 crore.
The Custodian, ministry of finance, secured the order last Friday from Justice D K Deshmukh, special judge presiding over the scam case. The money would go to Income Tax Department (Rs 28.34 crore), banks and financial institutions, against pending claims.
The state Bank of India will get Rs.259.65 crore and SBI Caps will get Rs.16.25 crore. Janak Dwarkadas counsel for standard Chartered claiming its share said, “We are about to complete two decades since the 1992 scam. The bank’s claim is of Rs 506 crore as principle amount. We are getting only a part of it on an interim basis, that too not with interest and on an undertaking from the parent company that we will bring it back in the event the court directs us to do so,” he said. The Custodian has been asked to release the amount to Standard Chartered only after final court clearance.
In March this year, Custodian Satish Loomba had released Rs 2,200 crore out of which Rs 2,000 crore had gone to the Income Tax Department and the rest to the State Bank of India. The priority under the law is to claims by Income Tax authorities over banks and financial institutions.