NEW DELHI, May 1: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed a criminal case against Shaw Wallace chairman Manu Chhabria and his close associate and brother-in-law Niranjan Thakur.

The case was filed in the court of the chief metropolitan magistrate in Calcutta. ED sources said that they had to initiate criminal cases against Chhabria and Thakur following their failure to appear before the directorate despite several summons.

Chhabria, who is holed up in the Gulf, and Thakur, who ED sources said is in Mumbai, have been served with three summons to which they failed to respond.

``It is now up to the Court to issue summons to Chhabria and Thakur,'' a senior ED official said. According to Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (FERA), the failure of an accused to make himself available for questioning is an offence, sources said.

Sources in ED said that investigations into FERA violations by Chhabria and Thakur had yielded ``some positive results''. Further investigations were being hampered as both Chhabria and Thakur were evading the Directorate.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.