HYDERABAD: A division bench of the High Court on Thursday expressed its displeasure at the slow pace of verification of the documents of Agri Gold consortium companies and the due diligence exercise on the companies’ assets by the Subhash Chandra Foundation of Essel-Zee group.
The group wanted to take over the whole business of Agri Gold consortium companies and the court permitted its representatives to verify all the documents of Agri Gold.
The bench of justices V Ramasubramanian and SV Bhatt was dealing with a batch of petitions filed by the Telangana Agri Gold Customers and Agents Welfare Association and others seeking a CBI probe into Agri Gold scam and return of the depositors’ monies. While the case was in progress the Subhash Chandra Foundation came forward to take over the whole business of Agri Gold by paying the money which would facilitate payment of monies to the depositors.
On an earlier occasion, senior counsel Sri Raghuram, appearing for Delloite firm which was representing the Essel-Zee group, told the court that the foundation was ready to take over the companies’ properties and sought more time to complete the ongoing due diligence exercise on the assets of Agri Gold. The foundation said that it was willing to take over all the 175-odd companies of Agri Gold group by paying thousands of crores of rupees. The court had directed the AP CID and other officers concerned to cooperate with the foundation so that due diligence was done effectively and expeditiously. During hearing on Thursday, the bench felt that there was no progress at all.
While adjourning the case to January 25, the bench directed Subhash Chandra Foundation, Agri Gold and the CID to file affidavits, clearly explaining the progress made in this regard.
The bench, which was also dealing with Akshay gold company case, said that unless the details of proposed buyers were disclosed, it would not entertain the applications for the company’s takeover.
Essel-Zee’s intention
The group wanted to take over the whole business of Agri Gold consortium companies and the court permitted its representatives to verify all the documents of Agri Gold
The group earlier did tell the court that the foundation was ready to take over the companies’ properties and sought more time to complete the ongoing due diligence exercise