ADAG says it is a victim of ''bear cartel''

"A series of completely false and baseless rumors against our group have been circulated yesterday by our corporaterivals and an illegal bear cartel," Doshi said.

He said that the group has sought an immediate probe intothe "concerted efforts to destabilise the capital markets andcreate panic amongst investors."

"The market regulatory authorities are equipped with themost advanced electronic surveillance systems and we areconfident this deliberate pattern of price hammering andmanipulation will quickly be exposed," he added.

Doshi also expressed surprise at "the distorted reportingin a section of the media, attributing certain observations tothe ICAI."

"Reliance Infra has not received any queries from ICAI onits accounts for any year. ICAI has simply asked for copies ofaudited balance sheets, which are already in the public domainand have been circulated to over 1.5 million shareholders," hesaid.

Doshi said that ICAI has sought to know "why RelianceInfra has chosen to implement a policy of rotation ofstatutory auditors. It has been explained to ICAI that thispolicy, voluntarily adopted by Reliance Infra, is recommendedby the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. This policy is alsoentirely in line with international best practice."

Doshi said that Reliance Infra would "continue to extendall cooperation to ICAI and respond to any queries, if andwhen raised."

"At the same time, we would urge discretion to bemaintained by a professional body like ICAI, especially inrelation to price-sensitive comments and observations to themedia...

"Reliance Infra intends to take the strongest legalaction against any irresponsible and defamatory media reportson these and related matters," the group MD said.

About the consent order issue, he further said that theproceeds of the certificates/deposits referred to in the SEBIConsent Order were repatriated to India by Reliance Infra in2007-2008, more than 3 years ago.

The group stocks have witnessed heavy value erosion sincethe passing of the January 14 consent order, wherein the twogroup firms -- Reliance Infra and RNRL (now merged withReliance Power) -- had agreed to pay Rs 50 crore as settlementcharges and abstain from investing in listed stocks for abouttwo years.