Madras HC restrains directors of Disc Assets Lead (India) Ltd from leaving country
Chennai: The Madras high court has restrained the directors of Disc Assets Lead (India) Ltd, which cheated over 9 lakh depositors to the tune of Rs 760 crore, from leaving the country.
The First Bench comprising Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice Abdul Quddhose granted the interim injunction on a contempt petition filed by a depositor, which sought to punish the directors of the company for not complying with the order of the court dated October 11, 2017, to submit all the documents of title to the properties including originals thereof to the court-appointed committee headed by Justice N.Paul Vasanthakumar, a retired Chief Justice of Jammu and Kashmir high court.
The bench recorded the submissions made by additional advocate general C.Manishankar that there was a possibility that the directors of the company, who have scant regard to the orders of the court, leaving the country to frustrate or delay the attempts of the committee constituted by this court to liquidate the dues of depositors by disposing of the assets of the company.
Issuing notice to the directors of the company on the contempt petition, the bench in its order said, "Since the directors of the company prima facie, in contempt and the deposits of innumerable depositors are concerned, we deem it appropriate to issue an order of injunction restraining the respondents or any of them from leaving the country for a period of two months from today or until further orders of this court, whichever is earlier". The bench posted to June 4, further hearing of the case.
Originally, the company floated land purchase schemes and collected Rs 1137 crore from about 12 lakh investors and allegedly cheated them. The company claimed that it had settled the dues of 3 lakh investors amounting to Rs 500 crore and there were 9.50 lakh investors, whose dues to the tune of Rs 761 crore were yet to be settled. In June 2016, the Economic Offences wing police had registered an FIR which had given rise to criminal proceedings under various provisions of IPC and TNPID Act.
On a PIL filed by and on behalf of investors, the bench had appointed a Committee headed by Justice N.Paul Vasanthakumar to identify the properties of the company and its directors, sell the same and pay the depositors on pro-rata basis if the amounts realized were not sufficient to settle the claims of all depositors in full. The bench also gave several directions to the committee.
