JOIN USNBFC crisis: shareholders vs management at Indiabulls
The crisis in India’s shadow banking space seems to be deepening, as Indiabulls Housing Finance is pitted against two of its shareholders – Abhay Yadav and Vikash Shekhar, after the latter alleged the company of siphoning to the tune of Rs 98,000 crore.
After the Writ Petition was filed in the Supreme Court by two of the company’s shareholders on Monday regarding this, the company in a late night development denied the allegation.
The company responded by filing a complaint with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, which has also been marked to Home Ministry, Prime Minister’s Office and various investigating agencies, alleging extortion by the petitioners, on behalf of an accused mastermind Kislay Panday, a senior lawyer in the Supreme Court.
“Over the last two months, Vikash Shekhar has been trying to blackmail and demand Rs l0 crore from us. When we did not succumb to pressure, he sent the bogus complaint letters to different govt departments on May 6 and thereafter, again contacted us to pay him Rs 5 crore to withdraw the complaint letter,” the letter by the Indiabulls’ Director Gurbans Singh to Finance Minister, assessed by DH said.
The data reveals that Yadav and Shekhar have been investors with the company since May 9, 2019 and December 14, 2018, respectively. While Yadav owns four shares in the company, Shekhar owns two shares. The company has said that it has filed first information report (FIR) with the police over the issue.
“We have been informed that on the basis of the statements recorded by Police from Shekhar, the mastermind behind this whole blackmailing racket is, Kislay Panday. His modus operandi is to hire people like Vikash Shekhar and Abhay Yadav and make them shareholders of a company by buying 15 shares, get their signatures on undated complaint letters and then threaten the company on the pretext of a shareholder whistleblower to extort monies,” the letter mentioned.
However, Panday responded with the letter to the Finance Minister, sticking to his allegations.
The company Indiabulls Housing Finance Limited, its Chairman Sameer Gehlaut and others had also received huge kickback amount from various borrowers, the writ petition had alleged.
Indiabulls has been one of the NBFCs that have been facing the heat of shadow-banking crisis, and company has been selling off its subsidiaries in a bid to maintain cashflows.