The Entrustment Document Fraud (EDF) of Central Crime Branch on Wednesday arrested businessman Shaji Purushothaman, 48, for allegedly cheating Jayamurugan of S.N.J. Distilleries who bought Empees Distilleries from the former.
Shaji Purushothaman was one of directors of Empee Distilleries which was his family-owned company. Following a petition from Empee Distilleries, on November, 1, 2018, National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLT) initiated corporate insolvency resolution process and an interim resolution professional (RP) was appointed.
Based on the resolution plan submitted by the resolution professional, SNJ Distillers Pvt. Ltd. participated in the bid and succeeded in taking over the Empee Distilleries in 2020.
After the takeover, the SNJ Distilleries conducted due diligence in tracking various frauds, cheating, fabrication of documents, forgery with pre-dated documents committed by the directors of accused persons in the said company.
Empee Distilleries holds the company of Apollo Distilleries and Breweries Private Ltd. (worth about ₹125 crore), for which also the SNJ Distilleries had paid the bid amount of ₹475 crore. But Shaji Purushothaman and others created a series of bogus forged loan agreements with South India Hotels Private Ltd. and pledged four crores shares of Apollo Distilleries (worth about ₹40 crore). They created ante-dated documents to show that the above said shares were invoked by South India Hotels Private Ltd..
Jayamurugan of SNJ Distilleries lodged a complaint with EDF for cheating. The FIR was registered against 10 including Shaji Purushothaman.
Recently, The Madras High Court dismissed his anticipatory bail petition following which, the EDF team led by inspector of police V.Revathi arrested Shaji Purushothaman at his house in Uthandi on Wednesday. He was remanded in judicial custody after being produced before a court.
