Allahabad HC directs CBI to probe loans to Simbhaoli Sugars
Simbhaoli Sugars’ plans of a one-time settlement with lenders hit a roadblock with a division bench of the Allahabad High Court directing the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to probe whether loans were sanctioned in contravention of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) guidelines and whether there was a case of money laundering.
The court order came in response to a writ petition by the company seeking to squash insolvency proceedings initiated against it by State Bank of India (SBI) after the company could not convince the lender of its intention to complete the payments related to the one-time settlement (OTS). Simbhaoli Sugars owes lenders nearly Rs 1,500 crore.
“The petitioner has filed the petition with the sole intention of holding back the NCLT (National Company Law Tribunal) proceedings,” a division bench of Mahesh Chandra Tripathi and Prashant Kumar said in the order.
“On the first date of hearing, the counsel for the petitioner gave an undertaking that they are ready to deposit Rs 20 crore in the no lien account. They only deposited Rs 10 crore and the balance was not paid; it was nothing but a ploy to buy time and (take) the court for a ride.”
In the order delivered on Tuesday, the court directed the CBI to investigate whether there was a case of money laundering and to check whether the money has been siphoned off and parked elsewhere.
Simbhaoli Sugars did not reply to ET’s emailed queries.
