There are fireworks flying in the battle of gaekwads. SC order gives Sangramsinh upper hand in royal feud TIMES NEWS NETWORK [ TUESDAY, JANUARY 25, 2005 09:48:55 PM ] VADODARA: Sangramsinh Gaekwad, the youngest son of the former ruler of Baroda state, has gained the upper hand in the bitter family feud for property running into crores. An order passed by a Supreme Court bench of Justice S B Sinha and Justice Santosh Hegde on January 20, has given him majority stake in the Gaekwad Investment Corporation Private Limited (GIC). With this judgement, Sangramsinh will have control over nearly 86.70 per cent of the stake with as many as 6,491 equity shares of the total 7,475 shares being allocated to him. Of the remaining, 550 shares have been allotted to Mrunalinidevi Puwar, 25 to Shubhanginiraje Gaekwad and 475 to the rest of the family members. The court observed that initially when the shares were offered, Sangramsinh had obtained majority of the stake in GIC after other family members declined the offer. Also, Puar was already holding 1,000 shares, making it evident that she could not have been kept in the dark as alleged. The judgement is crucial as GIC is the primary company of the royal family holding a critical chunk of shares in the other two firms Baroda Rayon Corporation Limited (BRCL) and Alaukik Trading Corporation Private Limited (ATC). GIC holds the major number of shares in ATC. Out of the 952 shares of ATC, GIC holds nearly 85 per cent stake with 800 shares. It is significant to note that a majority of the fixed assets of the family, including the Nazarbaug Palace, Ashok Bungalow, Bakul Bungalow, Indumati Mahal, the two lakh square feet of land at Makarpura, the Padamkut Bungalow among others have been registered under ATC and would now be controlled by Sangramsinh. Well-known advocate and Sangramsinh's counsel, Kailash Jethmalani says, "With this order all the false allegations levelled against Sangramsinh will be cleared. It would prove to be a major boost for the progress of Baroda Rayon." Sangramsinh held the majority stake in GIC as well as ATC even during the time of his father and last ruler of Baroda State Maharaja Fatehsinhrao Gaekwad.The feud started soon after Fatehsinhrao's demise, as Mrunalinidevi Puwar transferred the shares to her name without the knowledge of family members and other directors on October 10, 1989. Interestingly, Sangramsinh had made Puwar one of the directors of ATC on March 5, 1988. When the scam came to light on September 1, 1990, Sangramsinh filed a case before the Vadodara court and obtained a stay over the shares. Also a status quo was obtained from the Company Law Board asking the royal family and other directors to refrain from altering ATC's assets. Following this, a series of petitions were filed in the court by Mrunalini Devi and other family members. Three suits were filed by Shubhanginiraje, Pramilaraje and Ajitsinh Gaekwad in the Rajkot sessions court to obtain majority of the shares in GIC. However, with the sessions court ruling against them, Puwar filed a suit in the High Court. Allegations were made in the petition against Sangramsinh, for acquiring majority of stakes in GIC by keeping other family members in the dark. The petition also prayed to reinstate Rajmata Shantadevi Gaekwad as the legal heir under the Hindu Succession Act. However, the court of justice N G Pandya had dismissed Puwar's petition Judicial inquiry in royal battle of Gaekwads TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ MONDAY, JULY 25, 2005 11:48:32 PM ] Surf 'N' Earn -Sign innow VADODARA: The property battle between the erstwhile rulers of Baroda state has landed in more legal tangles. The Vadodara chief judicial magistrate has ordered a judicial inquiry into allegations that the eldest member of the royal family of Vadodara and M S University Chancellor Mrunalinidevi Puar conspired to usurp immovable property worth crores through fraudulent means. The investigation was ordered after the youngest sibling of the family Sangramsinh Gaekwad alleged that Puar and others had floated a company with their employees as directors with the sole purpose of usurping "the invaluable and immovable properties of Gaekwad Real Estate Traders, which is a proprietary concern of Alaukik Trading and Investment Corporation (ATIC). The Supreme Court has already stated that Sangramsinhs company Gaekwad Investment Corporation has majority holding in Alaukik Trading. Alaukik also controlled some major properties of the family in Vadodara including Ashok Bungalow, Bakul Bungalow, the Nazarbaugh Palace, the Padamkut Bungalow, two lakh feet of land at Makarpura and the Indumati Mahal, among others. Sangramsinh has alleged that Mrunalinidevi and others floated Rana Agrochem Private Limited and made back-dated fake agreements with Alaukik to sell off a large part of the property for a meagre Rs 13 crore. The total value of this property is believed to be more than Rs 70 crore Intrigue in royal battle of Gaekwads TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ MONDAY, JULY 25, 2005 11:48:32 PM ] Sangramsinhs advocate Kailash Jethmalani says, "We found out that on June 24, Rana Agrochem had filed a special civil suit against Gaekwad Real Estate Traders stating that in 1996, they had agreed to hand over the property of Alaukik to them. Our investigation revealed that Rana Agrochem has been promoted by employees of Mrunalinidevi and others. We believe that the alleged back-dated agreements too are fake. According to the affidavit filed by Sangramsinh, Puar was appointed the director of ATIC in 1988 after the death of the last ruler of Vadodara, Fatehsinh Gaekwad. ATIC was floated by the erstwhile ruler in 1971, which was a subsidiary of Gaekwad Real Estate Traders - the company that owns all immovable properties of the Gaekwad family.. Sangramsinh has taken on his seven other siblings in a partition of property case pending in the Gujarat High Court since 1991. His brothers and sisters include chancellor of M S University Mrunalinidevi Puar, who is the eldest in the family, and Ranjitsinh Gaekwad, the eldest male member of the family. The family has been fighting over many precious properties including the heirloom jewellery - two precious diamonds and the crown and sword, valued at Rs 5.17 crore. Other jewellery, of both gold and silver, weighs 37,033 kg. Other moveable property includes the full armoury of weapons, the golden and silver cannons, the royal buggy, numerous antiques, paintings from the renaissance period and paintings of the famous painter Raja Ravi Verma apart from a large amount of real estate. There are five cars mentioned as well, including a Land Rover Crown, a Bentley (Crown), a Fiat Lusson 2300, a Number Hawk and a Premier President Fiat __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
At 01:31 AM 04/08/05 -0700, you wrote: >There are fireworks flying in the battle of gaekwads. > >SC order gives Sangramsinh upper hand in royal feud > >TIMES NEWS NETWORK [ TUESDAY, JANUARY 25, 2005 >09:48:55 PM ] > > >VADODARA: Sangramsinh Gaekwad, the youngest son of the >former ruler of Baroda state, has gained the upper >hand in the bitter family feud for property running >into crores. An order passed by a Supreme Court bench >of Justice S B Sinha and Justice Santosh Hegde on >January 20, has given him majority stake in the >Gaekwad Investment Corporation Private Limited (GIC). > >With this judgement, Sangramsinh will have control >over nearly 86.70 per cent of the stake with as many >as 6,491 equity shares of the total 7,475 shares being >allocated to him. Of the remaining, 550 shares have >been allotted to Mrunalinidevi Puwar, 25 to >Shubhanginiraje Gaekwad and 475 to the rest of the >family members. > Who's the villain in this affair. It seems there's plenty of skullduggery on all sides, though considering how much is at stake, its perhaps not surprising. I hope they sort it out for the best and quickly. Cheers, Henry