NEW DELHI — The
Supreme Court on Friday agreed to examine a plea seeking an in-depth, thorough
and time-bound investigation by a SIT into alleged “illegalities” of Indiabulls
Housing Finance Limited (IHFL).
A bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and AG Masih issued notice
on the petition filed by Citizens Whistle Blower Forum (CWBF) and sought
responses from IHFL, now renamed as Sammaan Capital Ltd, and others in the
matter.
The plea before the apex court said that based on public
records, ROC documents and financial statements, the IHFL had been extending
huge loans to various companies and these companies in turn have been routing a
substantial part of the money as investment in companies belonging to the
key-shareholders/promoters of IBHFL, including Sameer Gehlaut, the founder and
the then Chairman of IBHFL.
“In other words, borrowing companies bestow huge benefits to
the key shareholders and Chairman of the IBHFL for the favour they get in the
form of loans from IBHFL,” it added.
Further, it said that since the funds with IBHFL are
essentially its borrowings from public sector and private sector banks and
investments of its depositors, “thousands of crores of public money seem to
have been siphoned out by the company in order to financially benefit its
promoters”.
Earlier in February this year, the Delhi High Court had
rejected CWBF’s plea seeking direction for an SIT investigation into various
serious illegalities including round-tripping of funds, violations of
provisions of the Companies Act, and siphoning of funds committed by the
promoters of IHFL, its subsidiaries and their promoters.
The special leave petition (SLP) filed before the apex court
said that the Delhi HC failed to appreciate that many of the companies to which
IBHFL has extended these loans have a small paid-up capital, do not have any
fixed assets and are not even engaged in any business activities.
“The directors and office addresses of many of these
companies are also common. A majority of these borrower companies have also
failed to file charge with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA). That merely
because the borrowing companies have paid back some of the dubious loans
advanced to it, does not imply that the promoters of Indiabulls did not benefit
from the same,” contended the SLP filed through advocate Neha Rathi.
It added that mere repayment of loans does not absolve a
company and its promoters from criminal liability and investigation, especially
when such a company has further taken various loans, possibly to show repayment
in its book of accounts.
The plea contended that IHFL and its promoters are in
violation of various statutes and policies like evasion of Income Tax,
violation of rules and regulations of Reserve Bank of India (RBI), SEBI,
National Housing Bank and other laws but none of the authorities have taken any
action.
The petitioner said that the “instant scam” follows close to
the heels of scams such as those perpetrated by ICICI Bank, IL&FS and
Dewan Housing Finance Limited and illustrates how promoters and persons in
charge of large NBFCs have looted public monies invested in them and diverted
them to their own companies using a web of shell companies.
Indiabulls, a leading finance company and now an NBFC, was
founded by Sameer Gehlaut in 1999 and went public with listing on the Bombay
Stock Exchange (BSE) in 2004.
Suspecting tax evasion by Indiabulls, the Income Tax
Department carried out massive raids at 20 premises of the company in Mumbai
and Delhi.
Thereafter, in June 2019, the Income Tax Settlement
Commission issued an order directing Indiabulls to pay INR 300 crore as tax and
interest charges on the undisclosed income detected during the IT raid on the
company, said the petition.
