AgriGold case: Essel group told to deposit 10 cr

The High Court at Hyderabad has directed the Subhash Chandra Foundation, a not-for-profit a group company of Esselgroup-Zee TV to deposit Rs 10 crore within a week to show its bona fides of its offer to take over AgriGold group as a going business.

It also directed the AgriGold management and CID police of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana State to provide relevant documents to Delloitte firm hired by the Foundation to begin its exercise of duediligence on the assets and liabilities of Agri Gold firm.

The division bench comprising Justice V Ramasubramanian and Justice S V Bhatt gave these directions on Thursday while hearing the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition filed by Telangana Agri Gold Customers and Agents Welfare Association seeking a CBI probe into the scam and repayment of monies to the depositors.

The counsel for the consortium of banks that lent monies to AgriGold company also offered to provide Deloitte firm a list of all the properties on which the banks are holding charge.

Senior counsel for Deloitte Raghuram requested the bench to grant at least four weeks to it, so that it gets a picture of the assets and liabilities and then put the terms of payment of amount as security or to prove its bona fides.

The bench, however, rejected the argument and said that even to allow it to begin its due diligence exercise some amount has to be deposited. Finally, a figure of Rs 10 crore amount was agreed upon and the firm was directed to deposit the same within a week. It made it clear that other terms and conditions will be discussed after the deposit is made and adjourned the case to September 22.

Meanwhile, the cheque for Rs 4.11 crore presented to the court by MMR Group, which had bid for twice the amounts fetched in e-auction of four properties bounced due to lack of sufficient funds. With the bench taking a serious view, a demand draft for the same amount was hurriedly brought to the court at the last minute of the hearing and submitted. The bench expressed the hope that the remaining 75 per cent of the amount would be paid without fail by September 30.