Mumbai Police has registered an FIR against one of the city’s most prominent businessmen, Yudhisthir Khatau, his wife, Neerja Khatau, and Sumegh Modi – director of Yudhisthir’s Varun Corporation Limited – for allegedly cheating a Mauritius bank to the tune of $30 million (Rs 200 crore), reported Hindustan Times.
We have not received any papers on this issue either from the Mauritius Commercial Bank or the Mumbai Police, and are therefore, totally unaware of either the complaint or the case details.Yudhisthir Khatau to Hindustan Times.
The case, which has been registered under the Economic Offences Wing, dates back to 21 December 2008, when the Mauritius Commercial Bank agreed to give $30 million to Real Point Mauritius Limited (RPML), which is a subsidiary of Varun Corporation Limited.
Anshul Sehgal, the bank’s authorised signatory, filed the complaint that stated that they had disbursed the amount only after Varun Corporation gave it a corporate guarantee.
As per reports, Real Point Mauritius Limited defaulted on its payment in 2012, following which the bank began proceedings against the firm and Varun Corporation Limited’s director in the Mauritian Supreme Court.
Varun Resources, which is the largest LPG carrier in the country, hit financial difficulties almost four years ago, according to The Hindu BusinessLine in August 2014. As per the article, not only did the company report an outstanding debt over Rs 1,000 crore, employees’ wages too remained outstanding and the company reported a loss of about Rs 120 crore for the final quarter ended 31 March 2014.
In October 2016, as per another report in The Hindu BusinessLine, Varun Resources were on the verge of collapse, as they were forced to halt operations after it failed to repay outstanding loans of almost Rs 2,000 crore.
The company also faced fears of bankruptcy, after the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) ordered to start the corporate insolvency resolution process under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), based on a petition by Indian Bank, a part of the 12-bank consortium that forced the company to halt operations after it defaulted in its payments, as per BusinessLine.
The Mauritius Commercial Bank, too, has filed an insolvency petition against Varun Corporation Limited in the NCLT in Mumbai.
However, Yudhisthir Khatau has denied giving any corporate guarantee, and also claimed that he has produced audited annual reports for the financial year 2008-09.
The Mauritius bank levelled allegations against the company, stating that it forged annual reports and a corporate guarantee submitted before sanctioning of loans.
The magistrate was prima facie convinced that the complaint ought to be investigated by either the Azad Maidan Police Station or through the EOW, and such directions have accordingly been passed.Sanjeev Kumar, Mauritius Commercial Bank Counsel to Hindustan Times.
The EOW, for now, has registered a case under Sections 409 (criminal breach of trust by a public servant, or banker, merchant or agent), 420 (cheating), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 477-A (falsification of accounts), 107 (abetment), 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and 34 of the Indian Penal Code, based on a magistrate court’s order.
According to Hindustan Times, investigation is currently underway as documents relevant to the case are being scrutinised. Quoting sources privy to the case, HT said that even though no arrests were made, statements of witnesses were being recorded as part of the ongoing investigation.
Yudhisthir Khatau, maintained that he did not know anything about the case, despite being “fully aware of the affairs of the company” as a director of the firm.
According to Khatau, there is “no issue of falsification at all” since all accounts given to the bank had been duly signed by the firm’s auditors and directors.
Khatau further argued that based on this guarantee that the bank claims existed, it moved the NCLT in 2017, which concluded that regardless of whether RBI approved the guarantee or not, the bank’s claim should be admitted and therefore the effect of the guarantee has already been given by the NCLT to MCB (the bank).
“We fail to understand what further remedy MCB is seeking through a criminal complaint, as the existence of a valid guarantee was the matter of a civil suit, which has already been concluded and disposed of,” Khatau said.
(With inputs from Hindustan Times)
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