Manohar Rajaram Chha-bria, chairman of Dunlop India Ltd has decided to stay away from the tyre major's annual general meeting on September 25.
Chhabria's presence in India had become a matter of speculation at a time when serious allegations of gross financial irregularities
have been levelled against the NRI and his associates in group, liquor major Shaw Wallace & Co.
The chairman of the Dubai-based Jumbo group so far has not only stayed away from the confused employees at both Shaw Wallace and Dunlop India but also declined from making any statement in the press, in defence of charges of misusing funds lodged by his unions with the Company Law Board (CLB).
The recent controversy in Shaw Wallace is bound to find its way at Dunlop's annual general meeting (AGM) on Tuesday and would leave only the managing director, Murli Dhar Shukla, to face the ire of angry shareholders.
Dunlop sources, on conditions of anonymity, confirmed that Chhabria would not attend the meeting.
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Shaw Wallace, when contacted, did not comment on Chhabria's participation in the Dunlop AGM, saying it was for Dunlop India to comment on the matter.
However, in an unrelated discussion through the means of a fax, the Shaw Wa;;ace official spokesman sought to dispel the general sense of doom and foreboding that has gripped the company for some time, and more especially since a country-wide tax raid in the last week of August.
Despite extremely adverse media reports to the contrary, the spokesman said, the Shaw Wallace management is confident of emerging even stronger from the current crisis.
But as of now, it will not have the immediate presence of its chairman to buoy its spirit, since he has chosen to stay away from the glare of investigative agencies and adverse media opinion by avoiding his tyre flagship's annual general meeting.