HYDERABAD: The Andhra Pradesh government on Wednesday told the Hyderabad High Court that it has no intention to have a joint venture with the Subhash Chandra Foundation of Essel-Zee Group for development of properties of scam-hit AgriGold company.
However, the government was thinking of doing something to the depositors, and a decision would be taken in this regard and informed to the court after the summer vacation, it noted.
On an earlier occasion, the Subhash Chandra Foundation, while going back from its earlier proposal to take over the company, had informed the court that it was not inclined to take over the company citing that it was economically unviable. It said that the company's assets were valued at about `2,496 crore while the debts stood at about `10,000 crore. It further said that political leader Amar Singh was holding discussions with the AP government for taking over the company jointly and for development of its properties.
When special counsel for AP Krishna Prakash made the above submissions before the division bench comprising Justices V Ramasubramanian and SV Bhatt, which is dealing with batch petitions filed by the Telangana AgriGold Customers and Agents Welfare Association and others seeking CBI probe into the scam and return of the depositors' monies, the bench said that it would not further hear the foundation's arguments in the case as it went back on its earlier proposal of taking over the company.
At this stage, the counsel for AgriGold told the bench that discussions were still taking place on takeover issue and a 'clarity' would come by end of summer vacation.
Not responding favourably to this submission, the bench directed the AP CID to go ahead with the e-auctioning process and identify the properties which would bring in more than `100 crores through e-auction, and place it before the court for passing necessary orders. The bench posted the matter to June 5 for further hearing.
Action sought against foundation
The AgriGold Depositors Association has filed a miscellaneous petition seeking to impose huge penalty on Subhash Chandra Foundation. To this plea, the bench said that the foundation has already deposited `10 crore before the court (for having due diligence exercise to take over the company), and a decision whether to return the deposit amount or to impose more penalty would be taken at a later stage, and adjourned the case hearing.