MULTI-CRORE FRAUD: ‘PROPERTY VALUATION NOT CORRECT’, DSK MOVES NCLT SEEKING RECTIFICATION IN RESOLUTION PLAN
DSK’s lawyer Hrishikesh Karwande said that some business groups are approaching DSK with a deal that will enable him to return all the debts to investors, banks and CoC members.
PUNE-based builder and developer Deepak Sakharam Kulkarni alias DSK of the DSK Group, who is an accused in the alleged multi-crore fraud, has moved an interlocutory application before the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) to challenge the resolution plan approved by the Committee of Creditors (CoC) regarding the valuation of the group’s property.
In a press conference on Friday, DSK’s lawyer Hrishikesh Karwande said the valuation of the property calculated by CoC was not correct. Karwande also said that some business groups are approaching DSK with a deal that will enable him to return all the debts to investors, banks and CoC members.
Karwande said the application before NCLT in this regard was submitted on August 4. “Hearing in this matter will happen on August 30…. There are material misstatements and irregularities present in the resolution plan. Like valuation of a land in Balewadi has been considered much lower because when the corporate insolvency resolution process started, that area was under development. But now, since the area is under Metro zone, the FSI has gone up 4.0 from earlier 1.0. Hence the calculations should have been done accordingly which is missing in the plan…,” he said.
“Some business groups have approached DSK. If our application is allowed, we can take the business group to the NCLT so that money can be returned to the investors, banks and CoC members as early as possible,” he said.
Meanwhile, advocate Aashutosh Srivastava representing DSK and DSK Group of Companies, “Our client, from the beginning, had no intention to deceive the investors and the same was also imparted being part of my arguments in the respective bail petitions before the Supreme Court, Bombay High Court and other courts. The same was also contemplated by the honourable courts while granting bails to my clients. I had also argued before the NCLT on similar grounds and I am sure, justice shall prevail for my clients and the investors.”
DSK Group and its office bearers are facing prosecution by different agencies. The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Pune police is probing the case registered at Shivajinagar police station, while Sangli, Kolhapur and Mumbai police are probing their respective cases of investor fraud.
Pune police has investigated into different types of schemes through which the group had allegedly taken money from investors and cheated them. One of the schemes was that of fixed deposits, in which money was taken from the depositors and in return, they were assured either monthly, quarterly or cumulative returns besides the principal amount after the maturity period. The other scheme was known as Aadhi Ghar, Nantar Paise (First get the house, then pay the money) under which, initially, a certain chunk of the total value of the flats was taken from customers. Thereafter, the group promised to pay the EMIs on the bank loans of the customers till the possession of the property was given.
The Enforcement Directorate is prosecuting the accused under the PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act) and a chargesheet has been filed in this regard in the special PMLA court in Mumbai. The immovable properties attached by the ED in the case include land, family bungalow, buildings, flats, insurance policies and cash deposits in bank accounts. The movable properties included several high-end cars and bikes. The Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO), which is a statutory corporate fraud investigating agency, has initiated a prosecution against the group under Companies Act.
The overall alleged fraud of Rs 2,091 crore by the DSK Group include cheating around 35,000 depositors and institutional investors to the tune of Rs 1083 crore, siphoning of Rs 711 crore received in the form of loans and Rs 111 crore accepted through debentures and the deal of land in Fursungi area of Pune, which involved alleged embezzlement of Rs 184 crore. DS Kulkarni and DSK Group have denied all these allegations.