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Rathi denies Sebi charges of misusing office

Denying Sebi's charges that as the president of the Bombay Stock Exchange he had misused his powers, Anand Rathi -- the ex-BSE chief -- said on Thursday that the call made by him to the surveillance department was within the law stipulated under the stock exchange bye-laws.

"The call made by Rathi in his capacity as the president of the BSE, is within the powers conferred on him by the stock exchange bye-laws and in discharge of his duties and can in no way be termed as misuse of office," Rathi said in a statement here.

However, Sebi interim report said, "the argument made by Rathi that it was well within his right as president of the BSE to obtain information from surveillance as may be necessary in discharge of duties (as president), is untenable."

The report also said investigation revealed that Rathi had called the surveillance department and by obtaining price-sensitive information directly from the surveillance, had damaged the integrity of the surveillance system of the stock exchange, which had shaken the confidence of the investors in the system.

Rathi, however, quoting sections of the report, said there had been no misuse and most of the transactions were in the accounts of clients.

The Sebi report also said all fund entries by the Anand Rathi group companies of over Rs 10 million were in the normal course of business and most of the sale of Navartan Capital and Securities and Suresh Rathi Securities on March 5, 2001, were in the nature of squaring off on behalf of clients as it was the last trading day of the settlement cycle.

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