A Hyderabad city civil court on Saturday ordered Union minister of state for science and technology Y S Chowdary and his companies to repay an amount of Rs 6.2 crore to three companies of former Satyam Computers chairman B Ramalinga Raju.
Stating that the amount will include interest ranging from 18 per cent to 24 per cent, a Times of India report quotes legal sources as saying that the total amount with interest payable would cross Rs 17 crore.
The report adds:
The companies that availed these loans are Sujana Capital Services Ltd, Futuretech Industries Ltd and Platima Properties and Projects Ltd...Incidentally , for all these loans, Sujana Chowdary stood as a guarantor along with another director R Devender Reddy and the judge held that they, the three companies and the two guarantors, are jointly liable to repay the decreed amount. All the loans were taken by them in 1999 and the civil suits were filed in 2003. Despite written agreements to repay the money within a short span of time, the Sujana firms failed to repay the same.
According to Deccan Chronicle, the Sujana Group's defense claimed that the lending companies used them for transferring their money. While awarding the decrees, the judge refuted the contention of the Sujana Group saying that no evidence was placed to back it up
Chowdary is already facing charges of loan default and appeared before a Hyderabad court in May in connection with a criminal complaint filed by Mauritius Commercial Bank Ltd.
Mauritius Commercial Bank Ltd had earlier filed a complaint in the court accusing him and others of "defaulting in repayment of loan of Rs 106 crore."
The bank had submitted that it had lent Rs 100 crore to Hestia Holdings Ltd, a subsidiary of Sujana Universal Industries Ltd, and had secured a decree from a London court.
According to the counsel of the bank, the company - Sujana Universal Industries Ltd - stood as guarantor for the loan availed for Hestia Holdings Ltd, which is its subsidiary, and the company has to repay Rs 106 crore to it.
Subsequently, the bank had filed several litigations against Sujana Universal Industries Ltd and Chowdary.
Chowdary has claimed that though he was the founder of the company, he had relinquished his shareholding and directorship and that he had not taken the loan.