A Hyderabad court on Thursday issued a non-bailable warrant against Union Minister of State for Science & Technology Sujana Chowdary with regard to his alleged loan defaulting case of Rs 100 crore taken from the Mauritius Commercial Bank in 2012.
According to a report in the Times of India, the court also directed the police to arrest the minister and produce him before the court by April 26 as he had not made a single appearance, citing Parliament sessions, Cabinet meetings and other official engagements.
"He has failed to appear in court for the third time in a row, and during the last hearing, the court made it clear that an NBW would be issued in case of non-compliance of the order," the newspaper quoted the court as saying.
Yalamanchili Satyanarayana Chowdary, popularly known as Sujana Chowdary is an industrialist and one of India's richest MPs with assets of about Rs 190 crore and an annual turnover of $3 billion from his company.
The Mauritius Commercial Bank had earlier sought liquidation of Sujana Universal Industries, since it was the guarantor for the Rs 92 crore loans given to one of its subsidiary companies. The bank claimed that the total amount to be repaid was Rs 106 crore plus Rs 70 lakh as a penalty.
After multiple talks between the bank and the company's counsels failed, the Hyderabad high court directed the company to furnish the details of its assets, bank account details.
The TOI report adds that Sujana's defense claimed that a guarantor should not be penalized for the misdeeds of a principal borrower, but the argument did not stand up to legal scrutiny