SC denies any relief to ex-IFIN CEO Ramesh Bawa

New Delhi, April 10 (IANS) The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed the petition of former IL&FS Financial Services (IFIN) CEO Ramesh Bawa, who moved the apex court to stop SFIO's criminal proceedings against him.

The Serious Fraud Investigation Office, which is probing the IL&FS matter, has issued summons to several fomer senior executives of IL&FS, including Bawa.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi told Bawa's lawyer Mukul Rohtagi: "We are sorry to deny you any relief in the matter. Petition to be dismissed."

Rohtagi said that Bawa fears of his arrest in the case, as "SFIO proceedings under Companies Act is completely illegal".

On April 1, the SFIO arrested Hari Sankaran, former Chairman IL&FS, following which Bawa became concerned about his legal prospects.

The agency accused Sankaran of granting loans to entities that were not creditworthy or had declared Non-Performing Assets (NPAs), which caused huge losses to the company and its creditors.

Last week, the IL&FS board appointed Chandra Shekhar Rajan as the company's Managing Director. He was the Non-Executive Director of IL&FS for the past six months.

Last year, the Central government superseded the management of the beleaguered company, which has around Rs 91,000 crore in long-term debt, through a National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) order and appointed a six-member board led by Uday Kotak, MD and CEO of Kotak Mahindra Bank, to restore its financial solvency.

IL&FS group's total outstanding debt currently stands at Rs 99,354 crore, said N. Sivaraman, the Chief Operating Officer. The IL&FS Financial Services Ltd had notched borrowings of over Rs 17,000 crore from debt instruments and bank loans.