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Our Bureau

KOLKATA, Oct. 7

THE Kolkata police, now investigating into the affairs of the Calcutta Stock Exchange in connection with the March 2001 payment crisis, has found conclusive evidence of transfer of money through the hawala route.

The police, said Mr Soumen Mitra, Deputy Commissioner (Detective Department), will further probe into the matter before it comes up with the results of the investigation.

"During the investigation, we have found documents that indicate the use of the hawala route to transfer funds," Mr Mitra said.

The police disclosure comes on a day when the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) of Kolkata remanded the eight accused persons to police custody.

Six of the accused — Harish Biyani, Ramesh Biyani, R.K. Patni, Gopal Singhania, Basudev Singhania and Vijay Singhania — would be in police custody till October 8. The other two, Kishen Sharma and Dinesh Jain, would be in custody till October 12 and 17, respectively.

Former SHCIL chief's

deposition sought

Kolkata police sources told Business Line that Mr B.V. Goud, former chief of Stock Holding Corporation of India Ltd (SHCIL), has been requested to appear before them in connection with the CSE investigation.

This is the first time that the police has asked a senior SHCIL functionary to depose.

When contacted in Hyderabad, Mr Goud said that he would soon be in the city as a witness.

"I would like to tell the investigating agency that SHCIL did not play any negative role on the CSE front... in fact, my position is that the surveillance wing of the exchange should have been more careful." It may be mentioned here that certain quarters have tried to point out that senior officials of SHCIL had worked in association with stock market circles close to the elusive Dinesh Dalmia, of the DSQ group of companies.

Our Legal Correspondent adds: Mr S.C. Misra, Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM), on Monday recalled the order of October 4 (passed by the acting CMM), and remanded the eight-share scam accused to jail custody, on the basis of an application filed on October 5. The newly-appointed Public Prosecutor, Mr Ashok Bakshi, argued that normally in the first instance, a 15-day police custody is granted for helping the process of investigation.

In this case, however, after 10 days, when further prayer for police custody was made, it was rejected. The accused were sent to jail custody. Incidentally, the Deputy Commissioner (Detective Department) was personally present in the court with members of the special cell.

On a complaint lodged by the Calcutta Stock Exchange (CSE), the police had arrested eight persons who were produced in the court. On October 4, the CMM (on charge) had remanded the accused to jail custody but the bail prayer was refused.

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