Bankruptcies, jail and even death: The year was bad for some Indian tycoons

Some of the country's biggest and most-storied businessmen saw their fortunes fade in 2019.

For many Indian tycoons, 2019 turned woeful as lenders—empowered by the nation’s recent bankruptcy law and desperate to clean up soured debt from their books—started seizing assets of delinquent firms or dragged them into insolvency.

Indian banks wrote off a record $39 billion of loans in the 18 months through September in a bid to repair their balance sheets as they battled the world’s worst bad debt pile. Making matters worse, a shadow banking crisis led to a funding squeeze, crushing debt-laden businesses that were critically dependent on rollover financing.

“Life has come a full circle for tycoons that had enjoyed debt-fueled