Provogue India Limited, a fashion and lifestyle products company, has filed a case of financial fraud and criminal conspiracy of about Rs 90 crore against Plutus Holding and four of its employees.
.
This case has been registered by the Economic Offenses Wing (EOW) of Mumbai Police on charges of fraud during the insolvency and liquidation process of Provogue.
In the FIR, allegations have been made against Plutus Investment and Holding Private Limited and its associated people for committing a fraud of Rs 90 crore, conspiring to understate the value of the company’s assets, not recovering the dues of the company and deliberately stalling the process of liquidation.
EOW has registered a case against Amit Gupta, Sameer Khandelwal, Rakesh Rawat and Arpit Khandelwal on charges of cheating and criminal conspiracy. According to the FIR, the director of Provogue, being a major shareholder, was a personal guarantee in the company’s loan and was constantly looking after the affairs of the company.
Even during the process of liquidation, he was continuously looking after the affairs of the company. The company’s loan account in Union Bank of India had become NPA. The bank had appointed Amit Gupta as Resolution Professional (RP) as per the provisions of the Indian Banking Code. The company was sold to Plutus Investment & Holding Pvt Ltd in 2023.
Amit Gupta, appointed as RP from the bank, is also involved in fraud. According to the complaint, RP Amit Gupta made suspicious export transactions in the years 2018-19 and 2022-23. The client to whom Gupta exported had not paid the dues for the previous exports, Rs 32.71 crore were past dues, which were not recovered. Amit Gupta operated the business through former employee Sameer Khandelwal who was in constant touch with Rakesh Rawat, former director of Provogue.
Conspired to reduce the value of Provogue’s Hong Kong-based subsidiary worth Rs 54.72 crore It is alleged that RP Amit Gupta, Sameer Khandelwal, Rakesh Rawat, Arpit Khandelwal associated with Plutus Investment and Holding Private Limited conspired to deliberately reduce the price of Hong Kong-based Elite Team Hong Kong, a 100% subsidiary of Provogue.
According to the balance sheet of the year 2017-18, the value of this subsidiary company was Rs 54.72 crore. The company owned two properties in Hong Kong. Despite this, in the valuation report both those properties were hidden and shown as other assets so as to reduce the value.
Arpit Khandelwal sold Hong Kong property for crores In the complaint given to the police, it has been claimed that Arpit Khandelwal sold a property of a Hong Kong-based subsidiary of Provogue for crores of rupees so that the valuation could be reduced. Amit Gupta deliberately postponed the e-auction process for about 2 years and deliberately delayed it, so that the price of the company could be further reduced.
Balance sheet and documents not given to Independent Valuer According to the complaint, three independent valuers were appointed during the liquidation process of Provogue, but they were not given the balance sheet and necessary documents. All this was done to hide the financial condition of Provogue’s Hong Kong-based subsidiary company Elite SKJ so as to make the company appear less valuable.
Source link
[ad_3]
