Chanda Kochhar Money Trail: Dragnet closes in on Chanda & Deepak Kochhar  

As the dragnet closes in on the Chanda Kochhar-Deepak Kochhar family enterprise, investigative agencies have found several fresh money trails. One that is extremely perturbing and damaging is the financial statement filed by NuPower Renewables on March 31, 2010.

The agencies work on the premise that there is a quid pro quo. If the long hours of relentless questioning is anything to go by, the agencies have hit paydirt. IANS, which has been pursuing the money trail in this case, has now found fresh evidence. The source of funds filed with the RoC and the details of the 'investor' have been examined and reported upon the inspection of NuPower. Emergent details about Shanmuga Housing and Properties Pvt Ltd caught the eye of the investigators simply because ostensibly this company was not related to Supreme or NuPower but master data and directorship details as per the MCA records showed otherwise.

Armed with the war chest of ₹64 crore Videocon windfall and debenture application money of ₹7 crore from the same Shanmuga plus a short term loan of ₹2 crore, Deepak Kochhar went to the market. He purchased Wind Energy Generators from Shriram Transport Finance Co Ltd (STFCL) for ₹50.25 crore and Shriram City Union Finance Ltd (SCUFL) for ₹23.80 crore.

Meanwhile, Videocon Group incorporated a new company, Real Appliances Pvt Ltd, on July 22, 2010. The very same day NuPower extended the exercise period for conversion of 19,97,500 warrants held by Deepak Kochhar from July 30, 2010 to April 30, 2011. Then, Deepak Kochhar transferred 100,000 share warrants of NuPower on August 6, 2010 in favour of Sunil Bhuta, CFO of Deepak Kochhar Group of Companies.

The NuPower board was then informed on October 21, 2010 that Shanmuga Housing & Properties, which had earlier brought in ₹7 crore by way of debenture application money, now sought refund of the application money in a curious turnaround. Venugopal Dhoot transferred his entire shareholding i.e. 9,990 equity shares held in Supreme to Mahesh Chandra Pungalia at par value on November 2, 2010.

On December 20, R.N. Dhoot, S.M. Hegde and S.P. Dhoot associates and nominees of V.N. Dhoot transferred one equity share each held by them in NuPower to Prem Rajani, Shruti Bhuta and Bhupinder Bajaj, all associates and nominees of Deepak Kochhar. Cronyism and paper trail both validated.

Here is the sequence of events as documented by the probe agencies:

NuPower transferred its 18,97,500 equity share warrants to Deepak Kochhar as Managing Trustee of Pinnacle Energy Trust and 1,00,000 equity shares to Sunil Bhuta, as they exercised the option to convert the 19,97,500 warrants into 19,97,500 equity shares of ₹10 each by depositing the exercise price of ₹9 per converted equity share with NuPower.

Consequent to the said conversion/allotment, NuPower ceased to be a subsidiary of Supreme. Consequently, at this point of event, Supreme held only 2.32 per cent and 97.68 per cent were held by Deepak Kochhar and his associates and companies related to him.

March 31, 2012

RCPL issued zero per cent OCD's to IRCL.

September 29, 2012

Mahesh Chandra Punglia and Vasant Kakade transferred 9,990 and 10 equity shares each of Supreme to Pinnacle Energy Trust (wherein Deepak Kochhar is the Managing Trustee) and Prem Gul Rajani (associate of Deepak Kochhar), respectively. In effect, Supreme ceased to be a Videocon company, and became Deepak Kochhar's company.

April 29, 2013

Pinnacle Energy Trust invested ₹8 lakh to subscribe to 80,000 shares of Supreme.

May 31, 2013

NuPower took on record the consents received from Supreme and Deepak Kochhar (Pinnacle Energy Trust), holders of 71,00,000 zero coupon rate Fully Convertible Debentures for amendment to terms of the conversion and accorded for amendment by extending the Conversion Date of the FCDs from June 30, 2013 to June 30, 2014.

March 20, 2014

NuPower Board took on record the consents received from Supreme and Deepak Kochhar (Pinnacle Energy Trust), holders of 71,00,000 Zero coupon rate Fully Convertible Debentures for amendment to terms of the conversion and accorded for amendment by extending the Conversion Date of the FCDs from June 30, 2014 to June 30, 2015.

March 19, 2015

NuPower board took on record the consents received from Supreme and Deepak Kochhar (Pinnacle Energy Trust), holders of 71,00,000 zero coupon rate Fully Convertible Debentures for amendment to terms of the conversion and accorded for amendment by extending the Conversion Date of the FCDs from June 30, 2015 to June 30, 2016.

March 19, 2016

NuPower, placing reliance on the valuation report dated January 27, 2016 issued by Price Waterhouse & Co LLP, CA converted 71,00,000 Zero Coupon Rate Fully Convertible Debentures of ₹100 each into 6,08,659 equity shares of ₹10 each at a premium of ₹1,156.5 per share, in aggregate, as per the details below:

Name of holder: Supreme Energy Private Limited

Amount of Debentures: ₹64,00,00,000

Resultant equity shares issued and allotted on conversion of debentures: ₹5,48,650

Face value of resultant equity share: ₹10

Total amount of equity shares capital: ₹54,86,500

Amount transferred to securities premium account: ₹63,45,13,500

Name of holder: Deepak Kochhar

Amount of Debentures: ₹7,00,00,000

Resultant equity shares issued and allotted on conversion of debentures: ₹60,009

Face value of resultant equity share: ₹10

Total amount of equity shares capital: ₹6,00,090

Amount transferred to securities premium account: ₹6,93,99,910

Total

Amount of Debentures: ₹71,00,00,000

Resultant equity shares issued and allotted on conversion of debentures: ₹6,08,659

Total amount of equity shares capital: ₹60,86,590

Amount transferred to securities premium account: ₹70,39,13,410

Present status as claimed by VIL:

Videocon submits that the advance given by Videocon will come back to Videocon either by way of:

1. Equity of Supreme (together with holding of Supreme in NuPower i.e. approximately 10 per cent), in case full conversion is opted by RCPL.

2. Repayment of ₹64 crore along with interest/premium/fee equivalent to 60 per cent (i.e. ₹38,40,00,000) aggregating to ₹102.40 crore, in case conversion option is not exercise by RCPL.