Deccan Chronicle

Chennai, Tamilnadu, India

Saturday April 03, 2010

Chennai, April 2: The long arm of law can even reach the
mighty Ambanis all the way from a ‘lowly’ consumer court
in Chennai. Mr Zulfikar S. Anerranpurwala, a telephone
hardware supplier, got the consumer court here to issue an
arrest warrant against the RIL managing director Mukesh
Ambani after failing to get compensation from his company
for deficiency in his Reliance mobile phone.

Mr Zulfikar in his complaint to the south zone consumer

court said he had paid Rs 21, 000 for a mobile he bought at
a Reliance store in Chennai in February 2003. The
instrument was delivered only 24 days later and was not
usable from the very beginning. “I made repeated
complaints but all ended in vain,” he said in his complaint
filed in July 2004.

Advocate A.Palaniappan, who appeared for Zultfikar

before the consumer court, said that when he produced a
list of documents, including the bill, letter and notice sent
to Reliance company, the court ruled in his favour in
August 2008. “Though the court ordered the RIL to pay Rs
50, 000 as compensation and also refund the mobile cost of
Rs 21, 000, there was no response from RIL for the last 18
months. We filed an execution petition praying issuance of
arrest warrant in July 2009,” lawyer said.

He said the RIL staff in Chennai rushed to him to pay up

the money “only when the Mumbai police went to arrest
Mr Mukesh Ambani in his capacity as the company MD
last Friday.”

The RIL staff gave a DD for Rs 71,000 and requested the

lawyer to recall the petition. “We took the DD and
withdrew the case. It’s only natural that Mr Mukesh
Ambani would not have been aware of the inefficiency of
his staff here that led to all this confusion and conflict. The
Ambanis have done a lot for the country,” he said.

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