Tracking Gautam Thapar: Avantha Group poster boy's fall from grace

Group insiders and analysts say that the group could never recover from the rapid expansion drive, along with some failed foreign buyouts

As Gautam Thapar, the 60-year-old promoter of Avantha Group, spends another night in the Enforcement Direct­orate’s custody, it is perhaps a coincidence that his brush with the law enforcement agencies, too, began in August two years back.

However, this storm has been brewing since August 2019, when he was removed as chairman of the board of directors of CG Power, an Avantha Group flagship, following allegations of ‘several irregular transactions’ in the company. He was subsequently removed from the board, and the capital markets regulator, too, stepped in, barring him, and some other executives, from accessing the securities market. However,