Yash Birla declared willful defaulter by UCO Bank

Yash Birla. Pic/Instagram

Yashovardhan Birla, the Director of Birla Surya Ltd was on Sunday declared as a willful defaulter by UCO Bank after the company failed to repay loans of Rs 67.65 crore. Yashovardhan Birla or Yash Birla is also the Chairman of the Yash Birla Group. In a public notice which also carried a photo of Yashovardhan Birla, UCO Bank said the account was declared a non-performing asset (NPA) on June 3, 2019.

"The Birla Surya Limited was sanctioned with a credit limit of Rs 100 crore only with fund-based facilities for the purpose of manufacturing multi-crystalline solar photovoltaic cells from our flagship corporate branch, Mafatlal Centre, Nariman Point, Mumbai. The present balance outstanding is Rs 67.65 crore plus unapplied interest from the date on NPA," the notice said.

Also Read: Yash Birla donates Rs 2 lakh to refurbish water facility at Malabar Hill

The bank further said that the borrower didn't repay the dues despite several notices served by the Kolkata-based lender. Interestingly, UCO Bank was founded in 1943 under the aegis of industrialist G.D. Birla, the brother of Yashovardhan Birla's great grandfather Rameshwar Das Birla.

In 2016, the Maharashtra state home department gave permission to the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) to attach properties owned by the embattled Yash Birla, like the Birla House, Malabar Hill, plots opposite Centaur Hotel in Juhu and Mahim and bank accounts of related companies. An FIR was registered in 2013 against BPSL and accused Yash Birla, PVR Murthy, YP Trivedi, Rajesh Shah, Upkar Kohli, Mahendra Singh Arora, Ashish Mahendrakar, Tushar Dey, Anant Vardhan and Manish Malani under sections 406 (punishment for criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) and 120 B (punishment for criminal conspiracy) of IPC and other MPID sections.

Promising attractive interest rates on fixed deposits, BPSL had collected investments to the tune of Rs 300 crore from over 150 investors. The EOW had arrested several directors of the company, including managing director PVR Murthy. Last month it filed a supplementary charge sheet in the matter naming Birla along with the others.

The police claim BPSL diverted more than Rs 180 crore collected from investors to six other companies under the Yash Birla Group through multiple transactions involving different banks. The money was collected on the pretext of starting a power plant in the state.

Also Read: EOW gets go-ahead to attach Yash Birla's properties

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