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CBI probe into UTI affairs soon

Our Bureau

NEW DELHI, July 19

THE CBI is set to kick off its investigation into some of the investment decisions taken by the Unit Trust of India, during the tenure of the previous Chairman, Mr. P.S. Subramanyam.

According to officials here, the agency has already started probing the role of some of the officials of the trust in the private placement of shares aggregating Rs 32 crore in the Lucknow-based, company, Cyberspace Infosys Ltd (CIL). The company's promo ters, Mr. Arvind Johri and Mr. Anand Krishan Johri were accused of price rigging later with the Rs 10 share being quoted at over Rs 1,400 at one time last year.

Stock brokers of the National Stock Exchange had complained that some cheques of clients who had acquired the shares of CIL had been returned to them due to non-availability of funds in their accounts.

The allegation against CIL is that front companies of another company promoted by the Johris had bought and sold a considerable amount of shares in CIL. This was done to artificially boost demand and to rig the share price of CIL, according to officials here.

The Finance Minister, Mr. Yashwant Sinha, had said last week that the Government would consider a probe to ascertain whether some of the investment decisions of the UTI were base on non-commercial reasons.