The Hyderabad High Court on Tuesday directed the Subhash Chandra Foundation of Essel-Zee group to come up with specific details of the amount it was willing to pay to purchase properties belonging to Agri-Gold company which slipped into financial crisis.
The direction was given by division bench comprising Justice V. Ramasubramanian and Justice S. V. Bhatt while hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition filed by Agri-Gold Depositors Association seeking probe by the CBI into the scam involving the company’s assets. Nearly 32 lakh persons from Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka and other States had invested money in the company.
Posting further hearing of the case to September 17, the bench said that it would take a call on the further course of action in the matter after the Foundation (Intervenor) presented its proposal. During the last hearing, the bench sought opinions from all the stake-holders in the case on the proposal of the Foundation which stated that it would pay ₹4,500 crore over the next four and a half years for all properties of the company together.
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The AP government made it clear that proposal was not acceptable to it. Its counsel presented to the court that the Foundation was trying to step into the shoes of Agri-Gold. The depositors’ association, however, sought some modifications to the proposal.
The association wanted the time period of payment of money to be reduced to the minimum possible and demanded that the committed amount be enhanced considerably.