While the first broker, Mahendra C Babu has been asked to repay his dues of Rs 90 lakh worth of shares arising out of bad delivery introduced on the exchange, SN Tara, who had been accused of price rigging at the counters of BPL, Sterlite and Videocon has an outstanding liability of about Rs 47 lakh.

While confirming the move, JC Parekh, president BSE, explained: "At the earlier board meeting, MC Babu was given a monthÕs time to fulfil his obligations which is to the tune of about Rs 97 lakh. Today is the last day for Babu to pay the amount. If he fails to pay up we have no alternative but to declare him defaulter and auction his membership in order to recover the dues,".

Babu, however, has met JC Parekh, and has assured him that he will fulfill his obligations by Wednesday evening.

It should be recalled that MC Babu, has been accused of introducingbad delivery on the bourse since 1996. The governing board of BSE at its meeting held during the last week of November had offered Babu a concession of one month to make good the losses incurred by investors on account of the bad delivery introduced by him.

This deadline expired on Tuesday but, according to exchanges sources, the broker was yet to bring in the required amount of funds.

In the meantime, the board has also decided to liquidate the assets of SN Tara in order to make good the losses incurred by the exchange on account of his outstanding dues. "We have decided to sell off the bank guarantee and also encash the securities deposited by Tara. This sale will however help us recover upto Rs 25 lakh," said Parekh. He also explained that the board has decided to offer him a time period of one month, before the board meets on January 4, 1999. "He has promised to pay up the rest of the amount within this time frame," he added.

Interestingly, the exchange top brass has for long been claiming thatthere were not many cases of bad deliveries and defaults by brokers. This claim seems to be belied with some cases of such defaults coming to light in the recent past.