PIL against Indiabulls housing fin, Co. denies wrongdoing

New Delhi:  In a major setback for Indiabulls Housing Finance Ltd (IBHFL), a public interest litigation has been filed against the company in the Delhi High Court for alleged irregularities, violations and siphoning of funds. The company, however, in a statement, denied any wrongdoing, saying it has filed an application before the High Court for perjury and misrepresentation against Prashant Bhushan. The High Court has issued a notice to the company, Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA), Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Securities and Exchanges Board of India (SEBI) and the next hearing will be on December 15. The PIL alleged that IBHFL indulged in financial engineering and advanced dubious loans to companies which routed the money back to the accounts of the companies owned by Indiabulls promoters. “IBHFL through its promoters and their various group companies and subsidiary companies has been advancing dubious loans to companies owned by large corporate groups which in turn have been routing the money back to the accounts of companies owned by the promoters of Indiabulls, so as to increase their personal wealth,” said the PIL. The petitioner also sought directions for the MCA, Registrar of Companies (ROC), Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO), National Housing Bank (NHB), RBI, SEBI to take action against IBHFL and its promoters and owners. “As of date, there has been complete inaction of the respondent authorities against IBHFL,” the PIL said. Stocks of Indiabulls Real Estate slumped 9.58 per cent to close at Rs 50.95 during the day. Many Indiabulls promoter group companies have been found to have been indulging in various malpractices, such as roundtripping, kickbacks and tax evasion, involving several thousand crores of rupees. In its statement, Indiabulls Housing Finance said: “The company has filed an application before the Delhi High Court for perjury and misrepresentation under oath against Prashant Bhushan for willfully filing a PIL full of false and incorrect information and thereby causing wilful loss of reputation to the company”. The perjury petition against Prashant Bhushan will come up for hearing next week, it said. Further, the company has also filed criminal defamation case against Prashant Bhushan under Sections 499, 500 and 501 under Indian Penal Code for conniving with blackmailers and defaming the company. The company said it has informed the court that the averments made in the petition are “a pack of lies motivated by vested interest and has been filed without any research even on publicly available records of the company”. Mukul Rohtagi and Abhishek Singhvi arguing for the company stated that the false and fabricated allegations made against the company in respect of loans granted to four business groups fall flat merely on the fact that two of these loans to business groups are fully closed with no outstanding dues and loans to two other business groups are secured loans granted in the normal course of business and are being serviced regularly as per repayments schedule, the company said. “Further, these two business groups have no loans or investments of any kind whatsoever in any promoter companies,” it said.
Source: IANS