Fresh Purti secrets out; BJP split on Nitin Gadkari

Amid allegations that the maze of companies that invested heavily in Nitin Gadkari’s Purti Power & Sugar Ltd are shell companies with no known source of revenue, it now emerges that 15 of these companies made a fresh appointment on their boards about four months back.

The investor companies, which own nearly 70% of PPSL, simultaneously selected Mumbai-based businessman Shivam Kailash Sharma on their boards. Of the 17 firms that own shares in PPSL, Sharma is named as director on 15.

Sharma, a resident of a middle-class suburban housing society on Saki Vihar road, Powai, told DNA that he was approached four months back by Kolkata-based Rajendra Kumar Bihani. Bihani is a director with Seven Eleven Sales & Marketing Pvt ltd, the firm that allegedly appointed an employee of Purti’s bakery unit as a director.

“I have been working as an independent director for the past four months,” Sharma, 35, told DNA. “Rajesh Kumar Bihani is an acquaintance. When he approached me, I gave him my consent to being appointed as independent

In another development, even as the ministry for corporate affairs promised an inquiry into the fake slum addresses given as some of these companies’ headquarters, the address of another director of at least four of these firms has turned out to be false.
Murlidhar Balkrishna Bhumkar is a resident of Plot 44, S4, Shivaji Nagar, Govandi, Mumbai, according to records of the registrar of companies. This is the address of a shanty in one of Mumbai’s most congested slum colonies. And residents of the area say noone by that name has ever stayed there.

Bhumkar is a director in Rigma Fintrade Pvt Ltd, Swiftsol (India) Pvt Ltd, Jasika Mercantile Pvt Ltd and Regency Equifin Pvt Ltd.
A girl named Madhuri, who has been staying at the address for two years, said she was a tenant. “The owner is not Murlidhar Bhumkar,” she said. Imran Qureshi, a local activist who recently helped authorities to conduct a survey of Below Poverty Line families in Shivaji Nagar, said the owner of the house is Shankar Sonavane. He said nobody by the name Bhumkar has ever lived in any of the nearby shanties either.

Mumbai Congress rebel and former general secretary Ajit Sawant, who is among those who first extricated details of the shareholding companies of PPSL, said the cloud of suspicion over the leader of the country’s main opposition party is a shame.

Sawant, now suspended from the party but expecting to be back in the political reckoning for having obtained the information about the shell companies, said, “The role of the opposition is to effectively question any wrongdoing by the ruling party. What moral right does this opposition have if Gadkari’s books are not in order?”

More discrepancies are clear in the list of shareholding companies — one was headquartered in an address stated simply as “Ramabai Nagar, Pant Nagar”, two distinct areas in suburban Mumbai.  

Also, multiple directors of various investor companies have given a single address as their residence. Three individuals who are directors in 10 investor companies have stated their residence as 10/3, Kashi Nath Mallick Lane, Kolkata, 700073.

These include Ankit Chandak, a director with five investor companies, including Rigma Fintrade Pvt Ltd, Jasika Mercantile Pvt Ltd, Regency Equifin Pvt Ltd, Update Mercantile Private Ltd, and Spatial Dealers Pvt Ltd; Madan Lal Maheshwari who is a director at Nivita Trades Pvt Ltd and Mahawideh Securities & Investments Private Ltd; and Manoj Kumar Chandak, a director with three investor companies, including Leverage Fintrade Pvt Ltd, Neelay Mercantile Pvt Ltd and All Wise Finvest Pvt Ltd.

Bogus addresses
Multiple directors of various investor companies have given a single address as their residence. Three individuals who are directors in 10 investor companies have stated their residence as 10/3, Kashi Nath Mallick Lane, Kolkata, 700073.