India Court Orders Releases Of INR6.50 Billion In Harshad Mehta Case

A special court in India Tuesday allowed the finance ministry to distribute INR6.50 billion to the income-tax department, banks and other financial institutions from the liquidated assets of the Harshad Mehta group of entities against pending claims.

Harshad Mehta was the prime suspect in a securities scam that shook India's stock exchanges in the early 1990s. Mehta died in 2001 when he was still being tried for cheating, forgery and stock-price manipulation, which allegedly led to losses of billions of rupees to banks and financial institutions.

The court has ordered to pay INR283.4 million to the income-tax department, INR2.60 billion to State Bank of India (500112.BY), INR162.5 million to SBI Capital Markets Ltd. and INR3.46 billion to Standard Chartered Bank, a government statement said.

In March, the court had ordered release of INR22 billion, from which INR20 billion went to the income-tax department and the rest to State Bank of India.

-By Nupur Acharya; Dow Jones Newswires; [phone]; [e-mail]