MCA disqualifies more than 2 lakh directors of shell companies within 15 days

In another crackdown on shell companies, Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) has disqualified more than two lakh directors of shell companies within a span of 15 days, for not filing their financial statements or annual returns for two straight years, violating provisions of the Companies Act, 2013.

After the recent crackdown, the total number of directors disqualified by MCA has reached three lakhs.

According to MCA officials, a total of 3,19,637 directors were disqualified , while 2,17, 239 companies were deregistered by Friday.

A senior official of MCA told ANI on the condition of anonymity that this is the data from five banks only and the numbers are expected to go up once they receive data from 30 banks.

"The data we have got from banks are very surprising," the official said, and added that one shell company has even been found to have around 2100 bank accounts.

Without naming the company, he revealed that there are about 50 companies which had multiple banks accounts ranging around 450, 600, 900 and 2100 bank accounts.

"These companies are on MCA radar and investigation is going on. We are trying to track down modus operandi of these companies," the MCA official told.

The official also informed that the ministry wrote a letter to Indian Banks Association (IBA) on September 8, asking for a reply within a month.

"We have given a format to banks. In that format, we have asked about the pre and post demonetisation deposits and withdrawals details. Some more details have been asked so that we can get refined data about shell companies," the official added.

Earlier on September 12, over one lakh directors were disqualified by the MCA.