Mardia Chemicals Ltd has filed a suit in an Ahmedabad court against ICICI Bank Ltd, its Managing Director K V Kamath and its Joint Managing Director Lalita Gupte, claiming damages of Rs 5,600 crore.
The damages claimed by the company were equal to the losses on its books, Mardia Chemicals had said in its suit filed in the city civil court of Ahmedabad on August 30. The court has admitted the petition.
Mardia Chemicals said it had suffered the losses on account of ICICI Bank not disbursing the entire loan sanctioned by it to the company for its chemical plant at Mardianagar in the Surendranagar district of Gujarat. The company had also stated that ICICI Bank incorrectly adjusted the balance amount of the sanctioned loan against interest and principal repayment by the company.
ICICI Bank executives told Business Standard the case was too frivolous to comment on. It is worth noting that last week ICICI Bank attached a unit of Mardia Chemicals, claiming that the company owed the financial institutions Rs 1,400 crore. The Mardianagar plant is still operational.
ICICI Bank had earlier issued a notice to Mardia Chemicals under the securitisation law. This was contested by Rasik Mardia, chairman and managing director of Mardia Chemicals, in the Delhi High Court. The case was subsequently shifted to the Supreme Court. The apex court is yet to pass its judgment.
Mardia Chemicals had also filed a counter-claim of Rs 2,195.55 crore against the Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI) in the debt recovery tribunal of Ahmedabad on September 4. This was against a claim of Rs 67.27 crore made by IDBI on the company.
Earlier, Mardia Chemicals had also claimed damages of Rs 2,622.30 crore from the Gujarat government in a civil suit filed on February 21. The company had claimed that this was the extent of losses it suffered when its plant was shut for two and a half years following an order to this effect by the state government.
