Indiabulls cheers as fund misappropriation plea against it withdrawn

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Mumbai: In a big relief to Indiabulls Housing Finance, the petitioner who had approached the Supreme Court alleging misappropriation of funds, has withdrawn the same on Thursday, the company said.

The petition now withdrawn had alleged that the company had misappropriated Rs 98,000 crore of public money, a claim which was termed as “frivolous and bizarre” by the company, which had sought urgent hearing in the matter.

In an affidavit, Abhay Yadav, the petitioner, claimed that he is not “aware of the contents and allegations mentioned in the complaints or the petition”, the second largest home-loan lender said in a statement.

“I now realise that such papers, affidavits, applications etc were signed by me have been misused to file false complaints and petitions against Indiabulls with malafide intentions,” the statement quoted Yadav as saying.

The statement also quoted Yadav as saying “four shares of Indiabulls were purchased in my name in May 2019 and thereafter I was asked to sign a detailed bulky complaint which was addressed to government officials, ministers etc.” “I apologise with folded hands for unknowingly having signed the complaints, petition, applications etc without realizing its contents therefore I have decided to unconditionally withdraw the writ petition diary No 20710/2019 titled Abhay Yadav vs Sebi and others,” the statement said quoting Yadav.

The company moved the Supreme Court Wednesday seeking urgent listing on the plea filed against it but the court, which is on summer vacation, posted the matter for July.

Senior advocate AM Singhvi, appearing for the company, mentioned the matter for urgent listing before a vacation bench comprising justices Indira Banerjee and Ajay Rastogi.

Singhvi said frivolous allegations have been levelled against the company and the plea was leaked to the media in advance by the petitioner with mala fide intentions.

He said due to the media reports on the petition, his client has incurred loss of around Rs 7,000 crore of its market value in the past three trading sessions.

The news of the withdrawal of the petition sent the IBHF scrips soaring and the stock rallied close to 9 percent up at Rs 677 a piece on the BSE.

The petition had alleged that money worth thousands of crores were siphoned off by Sameer Gehlaut, the chairman of the firm, and the directors for their personal use.

Yadav, one of IBHF shareholders, had alleged that Gehlaut, with the help of Harish Fabiani – an NRI based in Spain, created multiple “shell companies” to which IBHF loaned huge sums of money under “bogus and non-existent pretexts”.

These companies further transferred the loan amount to other companies, which were either run, directed or operated by Gehlaut, his family members or other the directors of the company, the plea had alleged.