218 Credforce Asia investors urge CM Yogi: Revoke passports of firm’s ‘absconding’ founders
The investors alleged that Rajeev and his wife had fled abroad after they were accused of fund misappropriation. Their passports are due for renewal in August next year, a letter by them to the CM said
The 218 investors of Credforce Asia Ltd — a Haryana-based education company accused of committing fraud worth ₹250 crore — have urged Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath to revoke passports of the firm’s Lucknow-based founder couple Rajeev and Geetika Gupta. Their passports are due for renewal in August next year, a joint letter by the stakeholders who hail from the NCR region and Kolkata to the CM, said.
The investors alleged that Rajeev and his wife had fled abroad after they were accused of fund misappropriation. A writ petition was filed in the Calcutta High Court seeking the issuance of lookout notices against the couple and also to block the renewal of their passport.
Speaking to the press at a Lucknow hotel on Friday, the investors who had subscribed to the company’s issue of compulsorily redeemable preference shares in 2014, said six of them, who had succumbed to serious diseases ever since the company’s fraud came to the fore, did not get back the hard-earned savings that they had parked with the company.
Appearing on behalf of the investors, Aditya Bajoria and Tanvir Dagman said, “Credforce Asia is a company registered in New Delhi and was earlier known as TCG Hamilton. It is headed by CFO and director Rajeev Gupta and his wife Geetika Gupta. Other directors are Sanjeev Shukla and Sanjeev Dhingra.”
“We have requested the CM to get Rajeev and Geetika Gupta, who are in Texas (the US), arrested. Necessary steps to be taken to revoke their passports before they change their nationality,” they added.
They said the company had raised over ₹70 crore by issuing preference shares to investors, and on March 31, 2018, had about ₹250 crore in reserves. “The company stopped paying quarterly dividends and maturity dues in December 2019 citing difficulties in Covid times. The company duped us into investing in the form of preferential shares with a fixed dividend of 12.25 per cent...”
The firm’s absconding director and chief financial officer Sanjeev Shukla was arrested by Delhi Police on September 27 this year.