Bindra’s father asked to pay Rs.27.25 crore dues

CHANDIGARH - Olympic gold medallist Abhinav Bindra’s father A.S. Bindra has been asked by the high court here to pay long-pending dues amounting to Rs.27.25 crore to Asset Reconstruction India within the next four weeks.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court earlier this week directed Punjab Meats Ltd (PML), owned by A.S. Bindra, to pay the dues.

“PML had earlier failed to pay this amount, following which it was declared a sick industrial unit. At that time in June 2006, it was offered to make a one-time settlement payment of Rs.13.25 crore against an actual amount of Rs.40.90 crore to us,” a lawyer of Asset Reconstruction said here Sunday.

“However, they did not make any payment and kept on delaying the matter. In the court, PML also placed wrong documents and said that the due amount was only Rs.32.25 crore and not Rs.40.90 crore,” he said.

However, a division bench of the high court headed by Chief Justice Mukul Mudgal Friday asked PML to pay Rs.27.25 crore to Asset Reconstruction.

In its orders, the bench stated that a reasonable option of a one-time settlement was offered to PML in 2006. “Therefore, they do not deserve any further concession from the court. The company may sell its land and pay the amount to the appellant within four weeks,” the bench said.

Earlier in May 2009, Bindra was arrested on charges of fraud by a Delhi Police team from his sprawling farmhouse in Zirakpur town in Punjab, around 15 km from here. However, he was hospitalised soon after with chest pain.

He was arrested on charges of defrauding a private finance company and a private bank of over Rs.9 crore in 2006 and 2007. He took loans for PML and was accused of having sold the land that was mortgaged to the bank against the loan amount.