One of the major investors at Rajiv Gandhi Chandigarh Technology Park (IT Park),eSys Information Technologies Limited,is mired in controversy ever since its plot has been resumed by the UT Administration on account of violating rules. Director (Information Technology) Manjit Singh Brar conducted an inquiry into the alleged violation committed by the company and the Estate Office,based on Brars report,ordered resumption of the six-acre plot allotted to the company last year. The company then went in for an appeal before the Chief Administrator,UT,against the order. Now,it has come to light that the stand it took in its appeal before the UT Administration is contradictory to its stand in a court in Singapore. In 2006,the company,a subsidiary of eSys Technologies Pvt Ltd,Singapore,was allotted six acres on concessional price of Rs 4.59 crore at IT Park. However,the Estate Officer resumed the plot after it was observed that the allottee company made drastic changes in its shareholding,violating the allotment rules. According to the records with the Estate office,the allottee company sold 51 per cent of its shares to Teledata Informatics Ltd,Chennai. It got an evaluation of the plot done,which valued it at Rs 123.02 crore,way more than the price on which the plot was allotted. This,when there was no value addition done by the company on the allotted land. The allottee company has challenged the resumption order before the Chief Administrator,Chandigarh on the ground that the impugned order passed by the UT Estate Officer is devoid of merit. Akashdeep Sharma,Director eSys India,has taken the plea that there is no transfer of shareholding as alleged in the resumption order and that the company merely transferred shares to eSys Global Holdings Ltd,Dubai,one of the group companies. However,the company has taken different stands at different fora. Vikas Goel,chairman of eSys Singapore (of which eSys India was a subsidiary till 2007,when the plot was allotted to the company in India),in his affidavits before the High Court of Singapore has categorically affirmed on oath that 51 per cent of shareholding of the company was transferred to Teledata and that eSys Singapore is a subsidiary of Teledata. Further,Teledatas 2007-08 annual report clearly reveals that it acquired majority shares in eSys Technologies,Singapore for 105 million US dollars in February,2007. It directly holds 12.14 per cent and 38.36 per cent through its wholly owned subsidiary Baytech Inc,aggregating to 51 per cent,in Rainforest Trading Ltd (a special purpose vehicle holding 100 per cent of eSys Technologies Pvt Ltd). Even the website of Teledata says the company owns the plot originally allotted to eSys at Chandigarh. The contradictory stand taken by the allottee company raises eyebrows on the genuineness and credibility of allottees in the IT Park,which was set up after acquiring farm lands despite strong protests from the owners. Sources disclosed that the business operations of eSys group are already under scanner of Directorate Revenue Intelligence (DRI) for alleged evasion of huge amounts of custom duty. However,Akashdeep Sharma,Director,eSys India,said,Our company is an offshoot of eSys Singapore. We got separated in April-May,2007. Our company is owned by Neeraj Goel,who is bother of Vikas Goel,who owns eSys Singapore. The plot allotted to our company in Chandigarh belongs to eSys India. UT passed an order against us stating that we had violated allotment rules,according to which we cannot change our holding structure without taking prior approval from UT. They also alleged that we have got some over-evaluation of the plot done and sold it to another company. We never sold the plot,but only changed the companys shareholding structure. In April-May 2007,we transferred 91 per cent shares of the company to eSys Global holding,which is based in Dubai. We are contesting our case in UT and shall be presenting our facts in the appeal,which is scheduled in November,in the court of Chief Administrator,UT. (As per law,eSys Global holdings is a separate entity owned by Neeraj Goel,brother of Vikas Goel,the chairman of eSys Singapore. Such a transfer also constitutes violation of allotment rules, said a senior UT official.) It was only possible due to our alertness that we were able to detect the companys move. Now the matter is with the Chief Administrator, said Director (IT) Manjit Singh Brar.
