Retail major Subhiksha Trading Services, whose business has come to a standstill due to cash crunch, said its Gujarat and Delhi stores have been worst-hit by incidents of vandalism and employees are not coming forward to file police complaint for fear of being targeted.
“The company is not able to register an FIR or seek police protection. Our employees are scared to file complaints on behalf of the company as they believe that they may be targeted by the vandals,” Subhiksha founder and Managing Director R Subramanian said.
It may be noted that Subhiksha management has not disbursed staff salaries for four months now.
Subramanian said while the company has suffered 100 per cent loss in Gujarat, the same in Delhi has been estimated at around 80 per cent.
As many as 600 stores of the Chennai-based retailer have been vandalised by anti-social elements across the country, he said.
In fact, looting of Subhiksha’s stores started in Nashik about 10 days ago. Then it spread to Haryana and subsequently spilled over to Delhi, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh. The company’s stores in Noida, Green Park in South Delhi and Nasik were badly hit.
According to Subhiksha, each store has assets of Rs 25-30 lakh and the retailer is unable to protect the properties because it hasn’t been able to pay security agencies that have stopped attending to their duties since mid-January.
In some cases, even property owners are learnt to have broken into the stores and taken assets as they know there is nobody to defend the company’s property.
Subhiksha’s stores are insured by one insurer, who he declined to name.
