IFB Agro approves Rs 40 crore in poll bonds, flags ‘armed goons’ in West Bengal

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The announcement is unusual given that electoral bonds were instituted as instruments that could be used to donate money anonymously to political parties, and corporate houses typically purchase these bonds through trusts.

In the exchange filing Friday, signed by IFB Agro’s Chief Financial Officer Rahul Choudhary, the company said it was making the disclosure “in continuation” to its earlier letters to the stock exchanges “wherein we have intimated about excise related issues being faced by/affecting the company”.

This was the second such filing by the company. On October 7, it had made a similarly worded disclosure pertaining to subscription of electoral bonds “aggregating not more than Rs 25 crore for the financial year 2021-22”. Incidentally, even then, it had cited excise-related issues.

IFB Agro, which reported a net profit of Rs 8.59 crore for the December quarter, had made another exchange filing on June 26, 2020 about an attack on its distillery in Noorpur, South 24-Parganas in West Bengal “by a group of more than 150 armed goons”.

“These unidentified hooligans, armed with various types of weapons, forcibly entered the factory, beat up the security guards and practically held our employees/workers on duty as hostage. They also damaged the cctv cameras, computers, medical room etc. inside the factory,” it had said in the filing, adding that the company had to shut the factory down following the alleged attack.

“We have sought help from the Chief Minister of West Bengal and also from Finance, Commerce and Industry Minister of the State of West Bengal. We are awaiting for better environment before the plant can be re-opened,” it noted.

Later that year, on December 22, in yet another stock exchange filing, the company said that the unit was opened on July 2, 2020 after police protection was provided by local authorities but added that, “till date no offenders have been brought to book”.

In the same filing, the company wrote: “Further, the alcohol business of the Company has been suffering — and is under threat, as we have been singled out by certain excise officials for not succumbing to their illegal demands — have requested the Hon’ble Chief Minister of West Bengal and also from Hon’ble Finance, Commerce and Industry Minister of the State of West Bengal to look into/investigate the same. This is for your information and record”.

Queries sent by The Indian Express to West Bengal’s Finance Minister Chandrima Bhattacharya did not elicit any response.

In its latest available annual report for the financial year 2020-21, IFB Agro has claimed that its Indian Made Indian Liquor business was impacted during the year because “excise authorities created hindrance to the business for not adhering to their illegal demands, by adopting various unethical steps like (a) closure of Dankuni plant for 9 days in June 2020 on alleged quality issues, which ultimately turned to be baseless, (b) closure of all tie-up units for 25 days in November 2020, (c) non re-registration of the company’s flagship brand “Captain” almost for a month in November 2020, (d) putting restriction on retailers in various district, on lifting of the company’s product.”

IFB Agro is a group company of IFB Industries, which manufactures and sells home appliances. IFB Agro has seven bottling plants for Indian made Indian liquor in West Bengal — Bardhaman, Hooghly, Kolkata, Murshidabad, North Bengal, Purulia and South 24 Parganas. The company sells IMIL under its flagship “Captain” brand.

The company also manufactures extra-neutral alcohol (ENA), cattle feed, dry ice etc. It is present in the seafood business and sells ready-to-fry and ready-to-cook seafood under the IFB Fresh Catch brand.