Coming to the crux of the matter, without wasting your precious time, things
in Delhi were apparently fine until Sanjay's father came into the scene in
early 2000 (when he came over from Bhubaneshwar) and got Sanjay into the ECB
(External Commercial Borrowing) business, which is all about borrowing money
from foreign lenders at soft rates of interest and using the gap (between the
foreign and Indian rates of interest) for commercial benefit in India. It
sounded a good project with the promise (as made by Sanjay's father) of
attractive rates of interest and bulk amounts coming in for betterment of
business ventures. Sanjay, on behalf of his father, had told Raju that one
company in Calcutta was already being benefited from this scheme on the basis
of loans arranged by his father and that Raju (who had wanted to open up a
small hotel/resort project for naturopathy, yogic healing etc. as the USP)
should revise his project proposals to a larger size so that appropriate
levels of funds could be arranged through this scheme for his benefit and
completion of his dream project. Raju, along with his partner, floated a
Public Limited Company for this purpose (as suggested to him) spending over 6
lakh rupees for registration of the company with the government under the
relevant rules. He had spent another 35 lakhs for the purchase of land (for
the project in Himachal Pradesh). And, another amount of 5.5 lakhs was given
to Sanjay's father (through Sanjay) as refundable security deposit as part of
the agreement to conclude the contract of obtaining the loan/ECB. The
situation today is that Raju (and his partner) is down by close to 50 lakhs
(including the miscellaneous expenses borne by him during the trips to Bombay
etc. made by Raju, Sanjay and his father) as the amount paid to the Govt. of
India for the registration of the firm is gone as it is non-refundable. Since
the loan has not materialised, Raju is in no position to complete the project
which had a two year time frame (as required under the laws of the Himachal
Pradesh Government) for completion and that land is likely to be taken over by
the Govt. of Himachal Pradesh. That is also going. The refundable security
deposit of 5.5 lakhs is yet to be returned to Raju despite the fact that Raju
has been pursuing its return since 2000. He has written three personal
notes/letters to Sanjay ever since and has also met him personally on several
occasions. No formal agreements/papers were made in the case of Raju as all
the transaction was done on faith reposed on the words of Sanjay. The only
thing is payment of the 5.5 lakhs (security deposit) was made through the
Bank.
While Raju's case was being handled thus in 2000, Sanjay had also got Vijay
Deep involved in a similar proposal for his construction company and formal
agreements were drawn up. Since nothing came up ever since on this front too,
Vijay Deep also began pressing for the return of the Security Deposit of
Rs.4.5 lakhs taken from him. Nothing has happened as yet.
Meanwhile, in 2001, in another similar instance involving another
company/business group of Mumbai, Sanjay was taken to officials in the Finance
Ministry who deal with these ECB and other Banking matters. In February/March
2001, it was made adequately clear to Sanjay in person by these officials that
this proposal will not come through (i) as per the laws of the land, (ii)
until the source of funds was made clear to the Govt. of India (iii) unless
the credibility of the lender was duly established and accredited by the Govt.
of India (iv) until and unless the Reserve Bank of India gave the appropriate
approvals for bringing in the funds.
The so called lender (Gresham Lane Party) of Australia has no business
transaction in Australia since 1995 and it is a Two Australian Dollars holding
company (One AUD each in the name of Ravi Veeramantry and his wife - a husband
and wife holding company). The Govt. of India obviously does not recognize
this company to be an approved/credible lender. The whole thing has now
fallen of.
To be continued...
