IL&FS case: NCLT gives Axis and Stanchart CEOs, Bawa 2 weeks to file reply

Tribunal Makes Bawa's wife & daughter as respondents in case

The Mumbai bench of National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on Friday issued notices to Amitabh Chaudhary, CEO of Axis Bank, Zareen Daruwala, CEO of Standard Chartered Bank, Ramesh Bawa and his wife for violating the tribunal's order. 

It has also asked them to furnish their replies to the contempt pleas filed against them within two weeks.

Moreover the tribunal has allowed the Ministry of Corporate Affairs to make Ramesh Bawa's wife and daughter as respondents in the original case, as they were beneficiaries of the money swindled by him when he is was in IL&FS. 

The tribunal said that the order restraining the directors of the company from alienating their assets will also apply to wife and daughter of Ramesh Bawa. 

MCA said Ramesh Bawa had transferred Rs 3.84 crore from his ICICI Bank account to his daughter Akansha Bawa on December 3, fully aware that a petition was being filed before the NCLT to freeze their assets.

Subsequently while the hearing for freezing of the assets of IL&FS directors was on, Bawa further transferred Rs 1.14 crore from his Axis Bank account. 

And, while an order was passed restraining the company's directors from disposing off their assets, Bawa had accessed his lockers in Axis Bank and Standard Chartered. The government is not aware of the contents of the lockers or what has been done to them.

The government had alleged that the lockers along with the bank accounts were operated despite giving notice of the tribunal order to banks and Indian Bank Association.

On Thursday, the MCA had moved contempt pleas against CEOs of the two banks and erstwhile CEO of IFIN, a group company of the beleaguered group.