Dec 25 2023, 09:36
With finger at NCLT, co- founder of Kailash Parbat hotel moves CBI:
Kishore Keswani, co- founder and shareholder of Kailash Parbat Hotel India, which runs a 30-room hotel in Lonavala, has written to the chief justice of India alleging a bid to cripple the operations by not releasing funds for vendor payments and statutory dues. His brother Manohar Keswani says the charges are false, frivolous, and an attempt to derail proceedings.
On the old Pune road from Lonavala, a popular weekend destination for people from both Mumbai and Pune, is situated a quaint family hotel and vegetarian restaurant Kailash Parbat. The parking lot is packed and Netra, the fast-food outlet, is doing brisk late-morning business as weekenders stroll in for laid- back brunches, blissfully oblivious of a bitter battle that rages on behind the chocolate- brown walls.
Started by Kishore Keswani in 1995 in collaboration with the Mulchandani family which runs a pan-India chain by the same name, this standalone 2.6 acre property is now at the eye of a storm that has hit the Keswani family.
Not just the family, it has now become an issue for the Mumbai bench of National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), whose appointees are being accused of corruption and conspiracy. Instead of looking at company-law matters and dealing with the dispute on merit, the tribunal and administrators are trying to cripple the hotel operations by not releasing funds and "shut down" the hotel, Keswani has alleged.
While the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has now written to the tribunal, Keswani has upped the ante, appealing to the chief justice of India and senior government officials to stem the rot at the tribunal by sanctioning a CBI probe.
Complaints and CBI:
The first complaint Keswani filed was against an administrator appointed by NCLT in 2021. In this complaint, filed in June 2022, addressed to the anti- corruption branch of CBI in Pune, Keswani explained how the NCLT's Mumbai bench had appointed the administrator even though no such request was made.
According to Keswani, "In good faith, I had participated in the said talks for smooth functioning of the hotel. However, it gradually became clear that on the pretext of attempting a mediation/settlement between the parties, [the] administrator ... and CA were trying to analyse and examine my personal assets, which could apart from him, only benefit them and the respondents/opposite party in the sub-judice matter of CP 1300/2020."
source: et
Dec 26 2023, 12:39