‘Turnaround Tycoon’ booked in cyber crime racket case: Who is Pawan Ruia

Known for acquiring companies and attempting to revive several ailing public sector undertakings (PSUs) in West Bengal, which earned him the sobriquet of ‘Turnaround Tycoon’, Pawan Ruia shot to fame after the Ruia Group, a company which he founded in 1993, took over Jessop & Co – a 225-year-old heavy engineering PSU.

Very recently, in 2021, he had shown interest in acquiring Air India, meeting the required Rs 3,500 crore net worth criteria.

In 2005, when the Left Front was in power in West Bengal, the Ruia Group acquired Dunlop India Ltd and Falcon Tyres Ltd.

Pawan Ruia, considered close to the then chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, had promised to revive the company and help in generating jobs. Within a year, Dunlop’s Sahagunj factory was reopened, and the company was out of the purview of the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) in 2007.

However, plaguing labour issues at the Dunlop, as well as Jessop, units led to a record minimal output, and Jessop was shut down in 2014 – three years after the TMC came to power in the state.

His face-off with the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC government began after she questioned his failings. The state government eventually passed two separate legislations in February 2016 to take over the management and control of Jessop and Dunlop from the Ruia Group.

The same year, the industrialist was investigated by the West Bengal CID for his alleged role in a series of fires and thefts at the closed Jessop unit. He was charged under IPC sections 435, 436 (mischief by fire/explosive substance), and 120B (criminal conspiracy).

Born on December 10, 1957, in Pipri, Uttar Pradesh, Pawan Ruia graduated from Kolkata’s St Xavier’s College and earned a law degree from the University of Calcutta. He holds degrees in Chartered Accountancy, Cost Accountancy, and Company Secretaryship.

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