RIL hits back at AAP, says Biometrix investment was from ICICI Bank loans

NEW DELHI: Reliance Industries has attacked Prashant Bhushan, a leader of the Aam Aadmi Party, for making allegations it considers defamatory and malicious, in a statement that sought to explain the investment made by a Singapore-based company in companies of the Reliance group.

On Thursday, Bhushan had questioned the legitimacy of Rs 6,000 crore of investments by Biometrix, the Singapore-based firm, on the ground that the company had very little or no equity. On Friday, RIL released copies of a bank statement about loans to prove the transaction was above board, and said it was suffering on account of false and baseless allegations being reported by the media.

"A section of the press has regurgitated the false and defamatory allegations made against us on Thursday. This has inflicted unacceptable controversy and disrepute upon us across millions of stakeholders in the world," RIL said.

"Investments made by Biometrix (the Singapore-based firm) in Indian companies were from loans raised from Singapore branch of ICICI Bank," RIL said.

The bank statement, a copy of a fax from ICICI Bank to Biometrix, sent in September 2007, confirmed disbursement of a loan.

"Investments made by Biometrix into Indian entities have been scrutinised and investigated by regulatory authorities. We have participated and fully cooperated in the investigation and the regulatory authorities have been apprised of the true and correct facts," it said, but did not say which authorities were involved.

The Reliance scrip closed at Rs 799.25 on the BSE, a six-month low, down 1.4%, while the benchmark index was up 0.6%.

The RIL statement warned against "mechanical replay of allegation and insinuation" on YouTube or e-papers as they had "global repercussions". "Carrying such defamatory content, with or without carrying a few lines of our version, is unacceptable," RIL said.

It said the allegations have been made by "vested interests" in proceedings filed in November 2012 in the Delhi High Court. "These allegations have been appropriately responded to and the disbursement notices of ICICI Bank have been placed on record."

"Reporting Mr Bhushan's selective leaks of old information already residing in judicial proceedings is misleading global public at large and defaming and maligning our corporate reputation," it said. The press release advised the media to recognise the global nature of their content and not "fall for Mr Bhushan's machinations which are purely for his collateral and political gains".