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Rs 13 crore oxygen plant payment row: EOW files case four years after firm’s claim
According to a complaint filed by Katyayani Enterprises, which is engaged in the business of distribution, marketing and sale of medical equipment, in 2021, it signed a contract with its supplier, Mumbai-based Medion Healthcare, to set up and supply 23 static oxygen generation plants at various MoD hospitals.
Delhi Police’s Economic Offences Wing has registered a case over alleged non-payment of dues linked to the installation of oxygen plants in Defence Ministry hospitals during the Covid-19 pandemic.
More than four years after Delhi-based Katyayani Enterprises alleged non-payment of dues worth Rs 13 crore after installing oxygen plants in Ministry of Defence (MoD) hospitals across the country during the Covid-19 pandemic, a case has been registered by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Delhi Police.
According to a complaint filed by Katyayani Enterprises, which is engaged in the business of distribution, marketing and sale of medical equipment, in 2021, it signed a contract with its supplier, Mumbai-based Medion Healthcare, to set up and supply 23 static oxygen generation plants at various MoD hospitals.
This comes after Medion Healthcare was given the contract to set up the oxygen plants by Viskho Corporation, a medical equipment supplier based at Mayur Vihar Phase III in East Delhi. Viskho had been given a contract by the MoD to award work to companies that would install O2 plants amid the pandemic.
As per the FIR, registered on January 9, the contract was worth more than Rs 19 crore.
It added that Katyayani got its supplies from Medion Healthcare, and started the installation of the plants in MoD hospitals across the country.
After installing the plants, Katyayani allegedly raised a tax invoice of Rs 19,07,40,050, to be paid by Viskho. However, it was allegedly only paid Rs 5,58,81,629 by Viskho.
In the complaint, Katyayani alleged that it kept reminding Viskho about the pending payment, but the company kept delaying by saying that MoD has not cleared the bills.
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“The accused, with malafide intention, concocted a false and fabricated story… saying (there was) some malfunction at certain oxygen plants and thus the bill could not be cleared from MoD,” the complaint stated.
However, when Sangeeta, the proprietor of Katyayani Enterprises, inquired about the same with the MoD, she was
allegedly told by the ministry that it has already paid the full amount to Viskho and that no amount was pending with it.
Sangeeta, in the complaint, claimed that in April 2022, Katyayani approached Viskho again, as it was unable to pay Medion, its supplier. Viskho then allegedly issued a post-dated check of the pending amount, which was “dishounoured”.
“The complainant presented the cheque on April 16, 2022. However, the same was dishonoured and returned with the remark ‘Exceeds Arrangements’,” the FIR stated.
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Pankaj Prasad, the proprietor of Viskho who has been named in the FIR, told The Indian Express that his company has cleared all payments due to Katyayani by September 2023.
Prasad alleged that Viskho was given the project by MoD in 2022, and then contacted Medion seeking to install the plants.
“Midway, Medion introduced Katyayani in the contract. It said that Katyayani and not Medion will give us bills for payment. Katyayani was not mentioned in Viskho’s initial contract with Medion. Katyayani delayed the project and led to liquidated damages. Yet, we made all our payments. This is a false case,” he added.
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