Khemka says Vadra firm made false statements in balance sheet - Business Standard

Haryana-cadre IAS officer Ashok Khemka has claimed in his response to a government committee report giving a clean chit to Congress president Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra that the latter's company allegedly made some false statements in its balance sheet. He added as a director of the said company, Vadra was allegedly liable for offence under the companies law. Khemka had cancelled Vadra's purchase of a 3.5-acre parcel in Haryana's Shikhopur village alleging various irregularities. However, the Congress-run state government later gave a clean chit to Vadra. The company under question is Skylight Hospitality, which bought a 3.5-acre plot in Shikohpur village near Manesar and later passed it on to realty giant DLF at a huge profit. "By knowingly signing and filing a false balance sheet as at March 31, 2008, the directors of Sky Light Hospitality Pvt Ltd committed offences under sections 217(5) and 628 of the Companies Act, 1956," Khemka alleged in his detailed report submitted to the committee in May. Vadra and his mother Maureen Vadra were directors of Skylight during this period. According to Khemka, a statement regarding book overdraft in the Skylight balance sheet for the year ended March 2008 was false. "The bank balance is wrongly shown as book overdraft (OD) of Rs 7,94,00,000."   Further, at serial No 6 of the Notes To Accounts, the following is indicated: "The OD shown in Corporation Bank account is book OD due to cheque issued before balance sheet date but not presented up to balance date, which is cleared after balance sheet date." Khemka said in his report: "This was a false statement." According to him, the actual and correct position as on March 31, 2008 was that Onkareshwar Properties Pvt Ltd was the creditor of Sky Light Hospitality to the extent of Rs 7.95 crore and the actual bank balance was Rs 1 lakh. When Business Standard contacted Rajan Gupta, principal secretary, one of the members of the inquiry committee constituted by the state government, about the allegation leveled by Khemka, he directed questions to the state government. The chief secretary of Haryana, P K Chaudhery, said he was down with fever and that he would comment on the issue only on Monday. Khemka, who is under fire for cancelling the deal, also said: "The cheque No. 607251 dated February 9, 2008 shown to be paid to M/s Onkareshwar Properties in the registered deed no. 4928 dated 12.2.2008 for Rs 7.5 crore does not belong to M/s Sky Light Hospitality." An email seeking comments sent to Vadra's office did not elicit any response at the time of going to print.   The payment of Rs 7.95 crore was made to Onkareshwar Properties after money was received from DLF Universal Ltd (then known as, DLF Retail Developers Ltd) in the shape of advance or interest-free loan. With the two documents, i.e., land title and Letter of Intent for grant of colony licence, in its possession, it became possible for Sky Light Hospitality to execute a "Collaboration Agreement" with DLF Retail Developers, which was done on August 5, 2008 and to receive huge amounts as advance or interest-free loan from DLF. As per the Balance Sheet of Sky Light Hospitality as on 31.03.2009, the company had received advances of Rs 25 crore from the DLF Group towards the joint venture and land accounts during the year 2008-09. This funding from the DLF Group was used to clear the dues of Rs 7.95 crore — Rs 7.5 crore towards cost of land plus Rs 45 lakh towards stamp duty, to Onkareshwar Properties, the vendor-company, which sold the land to Sky Light. The motive of the sham transactions was to corner the huge market premium on account of the commercial colony licence, Khemka alleged. The modus operandi suggested that the payment to Onkareshwar Properties for land and stamp duty costs amounting to Rs 7.95 crore would have been made immediately after August 5, 2008, the date the "collaboration agreement" was executed by Sky Light Hospitality with DLF. This would have helped avoid any legal complications which the management of DLF could have landed into with its shareholders and independent members on its board of directors, Khemka said in his report. via Top Stories - Google News http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNEjODkp45GHyHYTin-phmbaqIJHXg&url=http://www.business-standard.com/article/current-affairs/khemka-says-vadra-firm-made-false-statements-in-balance-sheet-113081000272_1.html

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