Nagpur: After going through all the charges levelled against former President of Nag Vidarbha Chamber of Commerce (NVCC) Ashwin Mehadia by a group of past presidents, National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT)-appointed Administrator U C Nahata recently found Mehadia guilty in all the cases.
In a report submitted to the NCLT, the Administrator stated that the charges levelled against Mehadia were true. Nahata also found financial irregularities in the traders’ body during the tenure of Ashwin Mehadia as its President. Further, Nahata also recommended imposition of at least a ten year or lifetime ban on Mehadia from becoming director of any company and a three-year ban on other office-bearers.
In addition to this, Nahata in the report asked NCLT to impose a penalty of Rs 5 crore on Mehadia for causing huge financial loss to the NVCC. In his report, the administrator further recommended that all the decisions taken during his tenure be suspended and stated that he should continue to govern the body till its financial health is restored. There were 14 main allegations levelled by the group of past presidents of the body led by Dipen Agrawal.
In 2021, they had accused Mehadia of occupying the seat of President despite his Director Identification Number (DIN) being deactivated by the Registrar of Companies. There were also allegations that Mehadia had violated Sections 152(4), 152, 154, 164 and 167 of the Companies Act.
It is important to note that Mehadia had postponed the 77th annual general meeting of NVCC scheduled on October 27, 2021 with an alleged intention of retaining control over it. He had closed the membership drive early and conferred membership only on selected members.
In a letter written to the traders body on November 23, the past presidents including Govindlal Agrawal, Ramesh Mantri, Praful Doshi, Shrigopal Soni, Murlidhar Surjan, Radheshyam Sarda, Suresh Bhojwani, Hemant Khungar, Nilesh Suchak, Jagdish Bang and Dipen Agrawal had sought corrective steps in this regard. Earlier, the Registrar of Companies (ROC) had blocked the Director Identification Number of Ashwin Mehadia under Section 164 (2) of the Companies Act. 2013 for five years which made his appointment as President of NVCC invalid.
In addition, the former heads of the body representing more than 13 lakh traders across the Vidarbha region, also alleged that Mehadia illegally presided over the executive body meeting wherein he was re-elected as the President while Argundas Ahuja, Farooque Akbani and SwpnilAhirkar became theVice Presidents. Ashwin Mehadia had also announced the names of 40 members of executive body and 11 names of co-opt members.
