The Delhi High Court has issued a bailable warrant against Sanjiv Gupta, former managing director and CEO at online retailer AskMe’s parent Getit Info Service Pvt. Ltd.
The warrant comes after the court, earlier this year, had ordered an investigation into an alleged fraud at AskMe and appointed a liquidator to wind up the company.
The court issued the warrant, bailable for Rs 50,000, on 12 September after the counsel for the liquidator said that Gupta had not filed a statement of affairs and had not even appeared before the liquidator for recording the statement.
However, a spokesperson for Gupta denied that he was not present before the liquidator.
“Gupta has officially appeared and presented his statements before the official liquidator on all notices received till date for which documentary evidence is available. The same will be presented by his counsel before the concerned authorities at the appropriate forum to remove any confusion,†the spokesperson said in response to a query.
Gupta, a former chief of Coca-Cola India, had last year approached Astro for a management buyout of AskMe. Astro, however, refused his offer. Subsequently, AskMe was shut down a year ago after Astro Group refused to provide more funds to the companty, resulting in a top-level exodus, massive job losses, payment defaults and numerous court cases.
Apart from Gupta, bailable warrants have also been issued against other former Getit directors Sidharth Gupta and Grant Scott Ferguson, who represented Astro on Getit’s board.
The liquidation process, which was initiated earlier this year, is underway as various vendors to whom AskMe owes money are filing claims with the liquidator.
Logistics company Blue Dart Express has been allowed to file claims with the liquidator, shows documents put up by the Delhi High Court. Advertising firm JWT, technology vendor HCL and a group of AskMe employees had earlier filed similar cases.