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Hearing an application filed by the National Spot Exchange Ltd (NSEL) seeking direction on the recovery of Rs 687 crore from Karnal-based borrower P D Agroprocessors, the high court here on Monday directed seven of the company’s directors to be present before it on April 28, the next scheduled date of hearing in the case.
“Failing their appearance, the court will issue a non-bailable warrant against them,” the court said. Surendra Gupta, PD’s jailed director, was barred from physical appearance.
Sources said Deepak Gupta, Raju Gupta, Sheetal Gupta and Sandip Singla were directors of PD, while Kanta Gupta, Kirti Dua and Charul Kapoor were directors of Dunar Foods, PD’s branded rice venture. All these directors have to be present on April 28.
On April 11, too, the court had ordered these directors to appear before it but the PD directors didn’t do so.
In the last week of January, PD Agro was to sign a settlement agreement with NSEL, with a nine per cent haircut. But the agreement was deferred due to a Rs 260-crore waiver which, PD claimed, was added to the due amount as interest and penalties.
Though PD agreed to pay Rs 29 crore as an initial amount, it defaulted on this. According to the NSEL website, PD owes it Rs 674.34 crore; as of Saturday, the company had paid only Rs 12.96 crore.
In a separate hearing on a suit filed by four NLEL investors, including Modern India, against NSEL’s promoter Financial Technologies (India) Ltd, and 23 of the exchange’s borrowers, the court ordered all the defaulters to be present before it on Wednesday. Earlier this month, too, the court had ordered all defaulter borrowers to be present before it.
But because of confusion over representations, the court had deferred a hearing on the matter and ordered borrowers to file affidavits before the court. The court also ordered borrowers to complete filing disclosures before the next hearing.
