Gavaskar appears before police in Topline Shoes scam

In a high profile Topline Shoes Ltd case about duping investors, the Vadodara police has been investigating cricket maestro Sunil Gavaskar involvement in the alleged duping of Rs 4.65 crore.

The registrar of companies (RoC) had registered a complaint in July last year against Topline's managing director HMG Murthy and six directors of the company including Gavaskar.

The investigating officer K B Jadeja today questioned Gavaskar in a hotel for more than an hour and recorded a five page statement. Gavaskar was in Vadodara to attend a cricket match in Halol along with other sports persons such as Dhanraj Pillai, Geet Sethi and P T Usha to promote communal harmony.

Vadodara Commissioner of police Sudhir Sinha said, "During the inquiry, Gavaskar has stated that he was associated with the company only for goodwill purpose."

According to him, he had resigned from the post of director in the company in 1994 when he was selected as sherrif of Mumbai city. However, he has no written proof for the same. "We have no prime facie case against Gavaskar to arrest him and the investigation is still on," said the police commissioner.

Commenting on the delay in recording Gavaskar's statement, Sinha said, "It was not very urgent."

Meanwhile, the Vadodara police has got the bank records and action against Murthy and his directors may be taken if unlawful movement of fund is established. It is learnt that Gavaskar has stated that he came into the contact of Murthy through a common friend and agreed to become a director.

Gavaskar avoided commenting on the Topline controversy. Murthy was not available for his comments.

Murthy has repeatedly stated that Gavaskar had resigned from the company in the very early stage and he was not liable for any offence.

Topline was floated as a registered company in 1991 and in 1992 it had floated an initial public offering (IPO) for raising Rs 4.65 crore.

TSL stopped filing its results with bourses and Sebi from 1991-2000 following which the company was finally delisted from Bombay Stock Exchange and National Stock Exchange in 2001. The RoC had filed complaints against 121 allegedly vanishing companies together across the country.