BIFR pulls up Atash Industries

The board noted that ail has lost sight of the fact that sizeable public funds were locked up in the company and it even attempted to divert sales proceeds from member banks to other banks.

AIL had approached BIFR with quot;unclean handsquot; and all attempts to determine the correct position of the state of affairs of the company, particularly in relation to its sickness have failed to yield any fruitful results, observed a BIFR bench comprising chairmanP P Chauhan and member G Narayanan.

The company delayed the special investigative audit SIA inordinately by questioning the audit whether it fell within the realm of Section 16 of SICA. This only indicated that the company or its promoters were not interested in proving the facts claimed by them in respect of the sickness of AIL.

Earlier, AIL employees said that Noida unit of the company was a franchisee of Parle and had entered into an agreement with the trade unions regarding voluntary retirement scheme. quot;The management of ail are stripping the company of its funds for their personal gains in order to rob the financial institutions and the workmen of their dues and rights,quot; Nitendra Sharma, advocate, representing Atash employees Union, informed the board.

Several banks and FIs including IDBI, Canara Bank, Vijaya Bank, British Bank of Middle East, Bank of Tokyo Ltd, Laxmi Vilas Bank, IIBI and ESIC raised strong objections against the company being declared sick. They said that the company iscontinuing with its operations but was shirking from paying its dues.

AIL was making inappropriate use of the protection given by SICA to stop paying its creditors by indulging in dilatory tactics in giving information regarding its claimed sickness. AIL is a listed company at the BSE and NSE and is hardly traded.