In a fresh twist to the case between Deccan Chronicle Holdings Ltd (DCHL's) and Kotak Mahindra Bank, the Supreme Court has given the bank permission to take physical possession of the site housing DCHL's Kondapur printing press.
The court on Tuesday dismissed a petition filed by the DCHL employees union claiming that the move would result in loss of livelihood to them, a report in the Times of India adds. On Wednesday, the bank reportedly removed the printing machinery from the site.
The DCHL promoters are currently in trouble after the CBI registered cheating cases against several top guns for availing multiple short term corporate loans by submitting false financial statements between 2008 and 2012.
The issue came to light after the CBI arrested T. Venkattram Reddy, the owner of the Hyderabad based newspaper, and his brother and Managing Director T. Vinayak Ravi Reddy, in relation to a Canara Bank fraud case on Feb 14, 2015.
The FIR accuses DHCL of taking corporate loans totalling Rs 1230 crore by allegedly submitting false and fabricated financial statements and by suppressing the borrowings taken from other banks.
The Kondapur plot was mortgaged to Kotak Mahindra Bank in 2010 while the machinery was mortgaged to another lender.
Kotak Mahindra Bank began legal proceedings after DCHL promoters failed to repay their outstandings worth Rs 100 crore.