Sandesh Prabhudesai
22 September 2000
Goa police is in process of identifying property owned by Western Indian Financial Services Ltd, once headed by union minister Suresh Prabhu, which duped hundreds of Goans for over Rs 1.20 crore within one year in 1997.
After filing absconding chargesheet against remaining five directors of the non-banking financial company, the economic offences wing has now approached the Reserve Bank of India and Registrar of Companies in identifying property of the WIFSL or similar firms owned by the directors.
"We will obviously attach any such movable or immovable property, if identified", says Harbinder Singh Dhaliwal, the ASP heading the EOW of Goa police. They have also approached Delhi police in this regard to seek further details of the WIFSL.
Though the WIFSL has closed all its branches situated in various parts of the country, the police is presently also finding out about Western Parks Ltd and Western Bio Gas Systems, two such firms supposedly owned by almost the same board of directors.
The arrest of Arun Chawla, a Delhi-based financial criminal charged in a similar multi-crore financial scam, last month while holidaying in disguise at a resort here has boosted morale of Goa police. Including Rs 1.5 crore in Goa itself, his Rockland Leasing Finance Company in 1995 had duped thousands of investors all over the country for over Rs 11 crore.
Following a similar strategy, the police is now in a process of attaching the property worth Rs 10 crore Chawla is owning in the tourist state under different names, including a huge plantation farm, industrial plot, a building, two shops and a bungalow at Miramar beach in Panaji.
The only hitch in the case of the WIFSL however is that all its directors - Nandan Gadgil, Brij Bhushan Nagpal, Narendra Kumar, Shantibai and Yogesh Kumar Tiwari - are reported to be absconding. Though union minister Prabhu is available, being a public figure, his name is being presently dropped from the case.
The high court is presently seized of the dispute of whether Prabhu, who was the founder chairman of the WIFSL, was the director of it till 1997. Though the lower court had rejected his argument that he had left the WIFSL much before, the sessions court had then dropped his name.
Prabhu had requested the JMFC to recall the process against him as he had resigned in May 1996, while the court observed that the form 32 he produced was neither dated, signed nor stamped by the Registrar of Companies. The investors had however produced a certified copy of the RoC, stating that he had resigned in March 1997.
Meanwhile, in yet another case filed later, Prabhu had to appear before the court in February as an accused, fearing non-bailable warrant as he had skipped several summons issued by the court earlier.
As the judgement in the high court matter is expected by next month, it has to be seen whether the police would follow the similar Chawla formula, if the court reverses the sessions court order. Though Chawla's director colleagues are still absconding, the police has moved ahead even to attach his property.
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