NE LEGAL BUREAU
AHMEDABAD, OCT 17
The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has directed the liquidator of the debt-ridden ABG Shipyard to approach Sebi to recover Rs 101.05 crore from the company’s promoters, as the markets regulator had in March passed an order directing them to refund the money to the company.
The Ahmedabad NCLT bench of Judicial Member Manorama Kumari disposed of the plea moved by the liquidator after directing him to approach Sebi “to get the appropriate order for the realisation of the above-said amount,” as per the order copy uploaded on the tribunal’s website on Friday.
Sundaresh Bhat, the liquidator for the ABG Shipyard, had approached NCLT to recover the amount from the promoters, which were allegedly siphoned off from the company’s books for personal gain.
In his plea, Bhat had sought NCLT’s direction to the respondents to make contributions of Rs 101.05 crore to the assets of the corporate debtor in respect of benefits “wrongfully availed by them”.
“Through his lawyer Vishal Dave, Bhat had also sought the direction of the Tribunal to recover the said amounts due to the corporate debtor and refer the matter to the central government for an investigation under sections 210 and 213 of the Companies Act.
Sebi had in its March 24 directed Second Land Developers (now known as Shivris Resources) and its senior officials, Rishi Agarwal and Kamlesh Kumar Agarwal, to pay illegal gains of Rs 101.05 to ABG Shipyard within three months along with an annual interest rate of 8 percent.
Second Land Developers is a promoter group entity of ABG Shipyard.
The matter pertains to the diversion of the said amount from ABG for the undue benefit to Second Land Developers, thereby creating a financial loss to the public shareholders of the company and illegal gains to the promoter group entity.
The amount was allegedly diverted to purchase land.
NCLT had in April last year ordered initiation of the liquidation process of ABG Shipyard under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code and appointed Bhat as its liquidator.
ABG Shipyard owes over Rs 18,000 crore to the lenders.
The shipbuilder was referred by the Reserve Bank of India for bankruptcy resolution.
Incorporated in 1985, ABG Shipyard is the flagship company of ABG Group with interests in the shipping and cement sectors.
