New Delhi, April 9
The Patna High Court has issued notices to External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha and the Union Finance Secretary on a petition seeking a CBI probe in the UTI scam, which had come to light during Mr Sinha’s tenure as the Finance Minister.
A bench comprising Chief Justice Ravi S. Dhavan and the Justice Shashank Kumar Singh, also issued notice to the CBI, while taking cognizance of a public interest litigation (PIL) on the issue yesterday.
The PIL also alleged that Mr Sinha was responsible for the Foreign Institutional
Investors (FIIs) “bungling”, causing huge tax losses to the country by allowing them to route their investments through Mauritius to avoid payment of taxes on capital gains on investment in India.
The PIL, was filed by Basant Kumar Choudhary, convenor of a social organisation, one of his counsel told The Tribune here today.
Notices were also issued by the court to the Director of Revenue Intelligence and the UTI Chairman, he said.
The petitioner also sought to restrain the Finance Ministry and the Central Board of Direct Taxes from issuing tax free bonds worth Rs 5,000 crore to meet the shortfall resulting from foreclosure of seven UTI-I scheme.
