Court summons Swraj Paul kin in forgery case

M D Jindal, brother-in-law of NRI industrialist Lord Swraj Paul, has been summoned by a Delhi court re in connection with a forgery case filed against him by Caparo Maruti Ltd, a joint venture between the London-based tycoon's flagship company 'Caparo' and Maruti Udyog Ltd.

Metropolitan Magistrate Manish Yaduvanshi has summoned Jindal, who was previously a director in the Board of CML before he fell out with the management in 2003, to appear before the court on November 28.

CML has accused Jindal and two of its former staff -- Surya Kant Aggarwal and J L Garg -- of illegally acquiring control of the governing board, fabrication of corporate and statutory documents and conducting unauthorised meetings of the board of directors.

"The court finds the allegations sufficient enough to form prima facie opinion regarding commission of offences like cheating, forgery, using forged documents as genuine, fraudulent cancellation of valuable security and criminal conspiracy by the accused persons," the court observed.

Jindal was appointed director by the CML management in January 1994 although he had only 10 shares while the majority was held by Caparo Group, the complaint filed in court by the company through its representative Vivek Mittal in April last year said.

It added that Jindal, in his capacity as a family member, was informally allowed to chair the board meetings.

However, the company at a March 2003 Board meeting appointed Angad, son of Swraj Paul, as Chairman of CML, the complaint said.

This brought about a rift between Jindal and the Caparo Group, following which the former had 'unilaterally' sought to appoint three persons on the Board of CML, of which two are his co-accused in the case, the complaint said.

Jindal had even fabricated the minutes of the board meetings for this purpose, it added.

The accused had then unauthorisedly applied to the Registrar of Companies to gain official support for the minutes so fabricated, it added.

A criminal case filed by the Caparo Group under the provisions of the Companies Act accusing Jindal of supplying a government authority with fudged documents is pending before an Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate court in New Delhi.

The matter is now in the stage of evidence and Jindal is currently on bail.

Meanwhile, a criminal case filed by Jindal against Lord Swraj Paul and some CML personnel on a similar set of allegations is also being heard by the same court.

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