Another victim of brutality by Edelweiss...

Respected Readers, Friends and the Maharashtra Government

I hereby place my grievance against Edelweiss ARC Managing Director and CEO Raj Kumar Bansal , Edelweiss Group Chairman Rashesh Shah , EARC employee Mythili Balasubramanian , EARC employee Shivangi Varma and BDO Resolution Professional and Former Edelweiss Employee Bhrugesh Amin .

To many of us associated with the entertainment industry, the news, rather, tragic news of the death of Shri Nitin Desai Sir has come as a shock. His knowledge of India came from within, which resulted in the realistic sets he created for various movies.

We both had one dream in common, to create a world-class destination of excellence to which Indians and Foreigners rediscover Indian roots and heritage.

It has more come as a shock because he was a true karma yogi and gyan yogi and only something terrible could have happened to have him take the call to end his life.

The last I heard from him was in 2017, when My Marathi film Jogwa, which won 8 national awards in 2017. Little did I know at that point of time that in years to come we would be tormented by the same lender Edelweiss and Edelweiss ARC.

I had obtained in Sept 2017, a loan of INR 270 crores for the Globally famous active entertainment Brand Smaaash Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. , from Edelweiss. The loan was availed with the such that we would be able to pay the loan from the proceeds of an IPO.

My IPO was slated in August 2018 for listing on the prestigious NASDAQ. Unfortunately the collapse of ILFS and free fall of Indian rupee led to us withdrawing the IPO and my ability to service the loan was severely impaired

Since then my life has been nothing short of hell as the dirty tricks department of Edelweiss played one dirty trick after another. I was called a chor and wilful defaulter by the then chief of Edelweiss Finance and their then Chief Compliance Officer smit shah sat with his legs on the table, his shoe soles facing me and sped me to vacate the six properties I had mortgaged to them- my home at Lodha Bellisimo where I was residing, two flats at Prithvi Apts where my relatives were staying, my bungalow in Kune Village Lonavala where my daughter along with her family had been residing and two agricultural land parcels at Kolad and Gir.

In 2019, June the account was surreptitiously declared an NPA prematurely, and much against the directives given by the RBI transferred to Edelweiss’s ARC.

Due to Covid19 our business was shut for 21 months. When COVID was lifted I was urged to start the business by RK Bansal, the CEO of EARC that he was willing to support the start and restructure off loans so that the business could restart in a sustainable manner as it had been affected by Covid. All this is documented in a mail by me to them.

Since Jan 21, I have been giving them one proposal after another aggregating to over 180 pages of proposals for which there was silence from EARC. They have often mentioned in our several meetings that directions had been given from Rashesh Shah, the Chairman of Edelweiss, that they had been given the objective of destroying me, leaving me penniless and taking everything that I own.

Edelweiss ARC officials have intimidated me and family members with threats of multiple litigations filed before NCLT, DRT (Pune) and DRAT and attempting to ‘grab’ my bungalow at Lonavala.

There were 2-3 investors ready to invest in company business which has an EBITA of 3-4 Crores on monthly basis, but the Edelweiss and its honchos demanded ‘double-triple the dues’ and pressurised me and family in different ways. They? have looted my company business for their selfish motives and they didn’t accept my proposals and they tried to trap me.

The last proposal before we were admitted to NCLT was on 27 Feb and I met Mr Bansal on 27 April where I said in writing that their proposal is fine but something should be done about interest during COVID period and we both parted on a happy note. Whilst these discussions were ongoing, without giving us an opportunity to be heard, we were admitted to NCLT ex-party.

They went on to appoint their own former employee Bhrugesh Amin as the RP of the company, a man who has been siphoning money, trying to extort bribes from me, stopping employee salary payments and yet simultaneously, colluding with the CEO and increased his salary from 8 lakhs a month to 20 lakhs a month, something unheard of in a company in NCLT.

To add insult to injury they put pressure on the NM Joshi Marg police station through the office of the Commissioner and other senior officers of the police force and much after sunset post 7pm, my 66 year old wife was asked to vacate the premises. 25 people participated in this forceful eviction that took place without any documentation. This was done without female police officers present and without any male family members present in the house. I was in Delhi at the time and yet post sunset my wife was forced to evacuate the house. It was a full-blown Tamasha and it was apparent that their only motive was to use force and discredit us in our housing society.

The same happened in relation to taking possession of our home in Lonavala, where my daughter and her family were residing, the property’s possession, also taken forcefully, was contrary to court proceedings and after the expiry of the faulty notice issued by the collector.

We fully understand that we had availed of a loan and defaulted and we had mortgaged the property but when we have offered to pay the loan on multiple occasions they have refused to accept the payment and kept things pending to build up fake charges and extra interest and penalties.

The intent of Edelweiss was not to collect the loan payment but to instead try and take our properties and possessions. We have already uncovered the parties to which they have offered the properties. The proof of their corruption is in the fact that they are selling the properties to these corrupt individuals such as Navil Noronha of D-Mart at prices less that we have offered them. This shows that they never wanted recovery of dues from us, rather, to take our properties and give them at low cost to individuals that they favour.?

It was illegal and forceful the sadistic pleasure in the way they took possession and that needs to be noted and probably it is this humiliation or fear of such humiliation that drove Shri Desaiji this extreme step.

In the meantime, the company and its associates continued to do well. We got an offer of INR 250 crores for a one-time settlement of debt. This was in Feb 2023. However, the officers of ARC? deliberately chose not to progress further despite only having offers of less than INR 150 Crores for the same.

It is abundantly clear that ARC was playing games and had no interest in settlement.

They were only interested in playing games and a senior official of Edelweiss told Equiris that they are only interested in “destroying me”

So shocked was I that I suffered a severe stroke and had seizures and partial facial paralysis. I was in the hospital for a fortnight.

I am at this stage going through intensive physiotherapy to bide my time. Walking and talking are extremely painful.

I have written to various govt agencies like Ministry of MSME, CBI , Commissioner of police to come to my help.

In retaliation they filed a case against me in the Mahim Police Station where I was waiting and the first effect of the stroke was felt.

We are duty bound citizens and ARCs are supposed to help business that have faced troubles due to the business environment despite the promoter’s best efforts—instead they have become an Extra-Constitutional force, above the law, to give pain and through dubious auctions forfeit the properties of promoters at dismal values — harassment is the highest where real estate is involved. My case is sub-judice and hence I will not be able to divulge further details apart from them violating court orders on multiple occasions without any repercussions.

They have destroyed my health but my spirit is intact, my conscience is clear. I am going to fight another day and any help coming from the Govt in mitigating our pain is most welcome.

Please stop these rogues from acting like Asuras where they can drive a man of gyan to a step which was least expected of him.

I have had an unblemished career to date having created many pillars of our industry and this is the first time in my life I have seen a financial institution systematically, syphon funds, discredit individuals, and steal possessions without any concern or regard to the law.

I am able to prove every one of the above in detail and hope that justice is served.

I pray to all our respected leaders Devendra Fadnavis , Eknath Shinde , Smriti Irani , Nirmala Sitharaman

Respectfully,

Shripal Morakhia