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PIL against loan waiver dismissed

Correspondent

Petitioner to challenge the verdict

CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court on Wednesday dismissed a PIL, which had challenged the action of at least 10 nationalised banks and financial institutions in waiving Rs. 2,300-crore loan to Indian Metal and Ferro Alloys (IMFA), a state-based group of industries run by a single business family of Orissa.

Terming the loan waiver effected about five years ago as “uncalled for concession”, the PIL filed in October last year sought for a CBI enquiry into the role of the banks and some influential political leaders behind granting this huge advantage to a particular business family. The PIL had also urged the HC to appoint a judicial commission to monitor the CBI investigation.

Adjudicating over the PIL for nearly six months, a division bench of the HC comprising Chief Justice A.K. Ganguly and Justice B.N. Mohaptra in its judgment passed on Wednesday dismissed the petition.

The petitioner Gyanguru Das, a city-based journalist has however, indicated that he would challenge the HC judgment in Supreme Court. “I am going to file special leave petition in the Apex court soon,” Das said after the judgment was pronounced.

The petitioner had questioned as to how the nationalized banks and financial institutions had waived such a huge amount of loan of a company.

“This is nothing but a broad daylight robbery of public money by the banks done at the behest of official power and political patronage,” the petition had said alleging that several influential persons had also been benefited by this deal.

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