High court sets aside summons for Ambanis

Thursday, 11 September 2003, 19:30 IST
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NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court Thursday set aside summons issued by another court to Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani and his brother Anil Ambani to appear before it in a case filed under the Official Secrets Act. The case, filed in 1999, related to the alleged pilferage of classified documents of the federal cabinet regarding decisions on important commercial matters. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had recovered the documents from a Reliance Industries office here during a raid in connection with a criminal case against Romesh Sharma, an alleged property grabber. It was then alleged that Reliance Industries' then vice-chairman V. Balasubramaniam had links with Sharma. Sharma is currently being held in Tihar jail here in connection with several criminal cases. Judge J.D. Kapoor set aside the order issued by former chief metropolitan magistrate Sangita Dhingra Sehgal summoning the Ambani brothers. This was done in view of an earlier order passed by Kapoor whereby he had set aside a sessions court order that had asked Sehgal to summon the Ambani brothers. Kapoor had earlier set aside the order of Sessions Judge P.K. Bhasin, in which the latter had dismissed a revision petition filed by Balasubramaniam and other accused facing prosecution in the case. Dismissing their petition, Bhasin had asked Dhingra to summon the Ambani brothers as accused persons in the case as they could not abdicate their responsibility in the pilfering of classified documents. The accused had challenged Bhasin's order in the high court, saying that their revision petition had been dismissed without giving them opportunities of hearing. The chief metropolitan magistrate's court will now hear the case afresh.
Source: IANS
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