GVK Power and Infrastructure Ltd faces insolvency proceedings
New Delhi, Jul 16: GVK Power and Infrastructure Ltd (GVKPIL) will face insolvency proceedings for failure to pay loans to lenders, a corporate insolvency court has said.
The Hyderabad bench of National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) issued the order on a petition of lenders' group led by ICICI Bank Ltd, GVKPIL said in a stock exchange filing.
The loan was originally availed of by GVK Coal Developers (Singapore) Pte Ltd over a decade ago, for which GVKPIL acted as a guarantor.
The NCLT bench issued the order on July 12, which was made public on Monday. The petition was filed by ICICI Bank in 2022.
NCLT appointed Satish Kumar Gupta as an interim resolution professional for managing the company during pendency of the insolvency.
"The corporate debtor has acknowledged its liabilities and admitted the factum of corporate guarantee in its annual reports for the FYs 2018-19, 2019-20, and 2020-21. As on June 13, 2022, the borrower was liable to pay USD 1.84 billion comprising principal amount of USD 1.13 billion, interest of USD 731.57 million and agency fee of USD 144,000," according to the NCLT order, which was made public by GVKPIL in the stock exchange filing.
Senior counsel K Vivek Reddy, representing ICICI, referenced a London court judgment from October of the previous year to support the insolvency proceedings against GVKPIL.
"The first default occurred in February 2017 and remains unresolved. GVKPIL, as the guarantor for the loan taken by GVK Coal, is liable. The London court confirmed this liability, and given GVK's failure to make any payments, bankruptcy is the necessary course of action," he stated.
In September 2011, ICICI Bank (Dubai, Bahrain, and Singapore branches), along with Bank of Baroda (Ras Al Khaimah), Bank of India (London and Singapore), and Canara Bank (London), sanctioned a term loan facility of Rs 8,356 crore and a letter of credit for Rs 292 crore to GVK Coal for acquiring coal mines in Australia.
Additional term loans of Rs 367 crore were sanctioned by other banks in March 2014 that was later increased to Rs 2,089 crore.
In March 2016, ICICI Bank discovered that GVK Group intended to sell its stake in Bangalore International Airport Ltd without lender consent, violating the facility agreements.
The banks filed an injunction application in a London court in April 2016, where GVK undertook not to sell its stake in Bengaluru airport.
Due to continued nonpayment of the loan, the lender banks filed claims before the London court for Rs 5,915 crore under facility agreement-I and Rs 1,236 crore under facility agreement-II.
In November 2020, ICICI Bank invoked its corporate guarantee, demanding Rs 5,000 crore towards principal and interest from GVKPIL.
GVKPIL expressed its inability to honour the payments but committed to repay after negotiating a solution with the Adani Group, requesting the bank to refrain from taking action, according to the order.
However, ICICI Bank proceeded to approach the NCLT in 2022 to initiate insolvency proceedings against GVKPIL. On July 12, the NCLT determined that as of June 13, 2022, GVKPIL was liable for Rs 15,576 crore, comprising Rs 9,463 crore in principal, Rs 6,113 crore in interest, and Rs 1.23 crore in agency fees.
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Bank account in Ramgarh tracked for fraudulent fund transactions across 24 states, 4 arrested
Ramgarh (Jharkhand) (PTI): Jharkhand police on Thursday said it has unearthed a network of interstate cyber frauds and arrested four miscreants for fraudulent transactions through a bank account in Ramgarh district after complaints of 274 suspected transactions in 24 states.
The states where complaints for fraudulent transactions were registered included Maharashtra, Karnataka, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh.
The action followed inputs received through 'Samanvaya portal', a centralised, web-based platform launched by the Union Home Ministry to curb cybercrime.
"We arrested four cyber miscreants after a current account with Kuju (Ramgarh) branch of the State Bank of India was found to have registered suspected financial transactions in 24 states with the help of the Pratibimba portal of the Home Ministry through the Samanvaya portal," Ramgarh Superintendent of Police Mukesh Kumar Lunayat said.
During the probe, police found that the account was opened under the MSME Udyam Registration scheme in the name of Shree Ganesh Enterprises, he said.
The account had been linked to as many as 274 complaints from different states related to cyber fraud and illegal fund transfers.
The registered proprietors of the enterprise were identified as Rahul Gupta (37), Ravi Kumar Verma (34), and Ajay Sharma (33), all residents of Ramgarh district, a statement from the Ramgarh police said.
During interrogation, Rahul Gupta and Ravi Kumar Verma revealed that they had opened multiple current accounts at the behest of Ritesh Agrawal alias Munna (40) and Sonu Kumar Jha (34).
They admitted receiving Rs 1.2 lakh in exchange for facilitating the opening of these accounts.
"The accused further confessed to sharing OTPs, activating mobile banking services, and handing over control of the accounts to the main operators through WhatsApp and Telegram groups. These accounts were then allegedly used to route fraudulent transactions.
Police said mobile data analysis of the accused led to the recovery of crucial digital evidence, including details of SIM cards, bank accounts, passbooks, ATM cards, QR code scanners, Aadhaar cards, and PAN cards shared through messaging platforms.
A total of four accused have been arrested so far and sent to judicial custody.
A case has been registered at the Cyber Crime Police Station under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) 2023 and Sections 66C and 66D of the Information Technology Act, 2000.
Further investigation is underway, the police said.
