Another name appears in witch-hunting by banks; diamond house Winsome Group under Rs 6, 800 crore debt

Vijay Mallya is just the tip of the iceberg and banks are now going strong on revealing the defaulters and naming them publicly.

Another name that has appeared is of Winsome Group, which are now a distant memory.

In 2013, two Winsome Group companies, a diamond house, defaulted with 14 banks and created a debt of Rs 6, 800 crore with local lenders.
Now, the CBI is investigating the long forgotten matter and even lenders are resorting to name and shame some of the former and present independent directors of Winsome Diamonds & Jewellery and another group company, Forever, to get their money back.

Even Punjab National Bank, with exposure of Rs 1, 800 crore, has sprung into action and has sent out letters to three people asking them to help in arranging repayment.

Failing to do so, banks will declare them as 'wilful defaulters' and even publish their names and photographs in newspapers.

They are Harimohan Namdev, a practising company secretary; Madan Khurjekar, a former banker; and Urvashi Saxena, who was a senior official with the income-tax department. Among them, Namdev is still on the board of Winsome.

As per a report in Economic Times, three of them said they have replied back to the PNB, saying that as per Reserve Bank of India rules independent directors cannot be declared 'wilful defaulters' for a company's failure to repay loans.

A wilful defaulter is a person who will barred from getting any loans from banks in the future and from taking up post on boards of listed companies.

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