Builder ’loaned’ Rs 164 cr to Gadkari’s Purti group

Mangalore Today News / NDTV

Nagpur, Oct 24 :  Dattatray P. Mhaiskar, the director of IRB (Ideal Road Builders Pvt Ltd) that got contracts around Rs 60 crore during BJP chief Nitin Gadkari’s tenure as Maharashtra PWD minister from 1995 to 1999, "loaned" Rs 164 crore from his "personal savings" to Gadkari-promoted Purti Power and Sugar Ltd, Times of India reported.

Mhaiskar told the newspaper on Tuesday that the Rs 164 crore was loaned by Global Safety Vision Pvt Ltd to Puri Power and Sugar Ltd in 2010 to help the group tide over a financial crisis. Gadkari resigned from the post of chairman of Purti Group last year.

"The money came from the sale of some of my shares in IRB", Mhaiskar said. 

 

 

The report said, since Global Safety Visions paid up capital was just Rs 35,835 (as on March 2009),  it turned out to be a major surprise when a year later it lent an enormous amount to Purti.

Moreover,IRBPL in 2001 invested Rs 1.85 crore in the Purti Group a year after Gadkari floated the company.

The loan of Rs 164 crore still reflects in Purti’s balance sheet,  according to its managing director Sudhir Dive.

"Purti has repaid Rs 62 crore and we hope to clear off the remaining amount soon along with the interest", Dive said.

An e-mail from IRB clarified that Global Safety Vision,  in which Mhaiskar is a director, is not and has never been a subsidiary of IRB Infrastructure Developers Ltd or part of the IRB Group.

The TOI report said, in  2006, Purti got another bounty from a company promoted by Mhaiskar, Ideal Energy Projects Private Limited.

When Ideal Energy was scouting for land to set up a power plant,  it bought 55 acres of land from Purti for almost Rs 3.4 crore. 

With this, Purti had gained a mind-boggling 1,936% return on its land investments in six years. 

On buying the land at a seemingly inflated price,  Mhaiskar said,  if you can find me a cheaper land I will put up a factory the very next day.

Mhaiskar  did not respond to a TOI SMS sent to him for an e-mail id where a questionnaire could be sent.

Dive said that Purti had purchased a total 180 acres (Rs 54 lakh) of agricultural land directly from farmers for an average price of Rs 30,000 per acre in 2000.

"We used only 125 acres.