Sunday, December 11 2005 18:18 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: The CBI has registered a case against some officials of the Reliance Industries and nine National Insurance Corporation (NIC) personnel for allegedly causing a loss of Rs 200 crore to the exchequer.

This was the second case registered against the Reliance Industries in less than a month.

The first was registered against the Reliance on November 12 for allegedly causing a loss to the Department of Telecommunication by re-routing international calls as local ones.

The fresh case pertains to insurance of handset and non-billing by customers, thereby causing a loss of over Rs 200 crore to the exchequer, CBI sources said.

The agency also summoned relevant files from the NIC for scrutinising before going ahead with questioning of the officials of the Reliance and the Insurance company, they said.

The three-year deal, signed between NIC and RIL in 2003, had covered both a special contingency policy (for loss of handsets) and a default liability policy (for non-payment of bills) for a three-year period for company's WLL handsets.

While the insurer received a premium of Rs 45 crore for the period, the claims soon exceeded the premium, the sources said.

The CBI alleged that on scrutiny of documents, it became known that the Reliance deal had been sealed by some NIC officials in violation of set norms and procedures and without authorisation from the top brass.

The CAG report had also stated that NIC had suffered a loss of Rs 126.58 crore due to the Reliance deal. Claims of Rs 66.54 crore and Rs 31.74 crore, among others, had to be left pending by the insurer on the basis of paid and outstanding claims, it added.

The allegation against the NIC was that the company had failed to comply with regulatory norms while offering tailor-made risks to the company.

The insurer failed to comply with guidelines issued by their head office, the Insurance Regulatory Authority and the General Insurance Public Sector Association, the CAG said.

The Insurance policies were devised primarily to suit the requirement of the insured without safeguarding the interest of insurers owing to non-adoption of prudent guidelines, the CAG had noted. This had taken place before the demerger of Reliance empire.