Andhra Pradesh police has issued a lookout notice for investment banker Nimesh Kampani, the chairman of JM Financial. The lookout notice has also been issued against 17 others in a case
involving Nagarjuna Finance, where the firm has been charged with defaulting on repayment of deposits worth Rs 100 crore. Kampani was an independent director on the board of Nagarjuna Finance, part of the Nagarjuna group, in 1998-99. Kampani is said to be away in Dubai on work.
The defaults are said to have happened much after Kampani resigned from the company's board in 1999 and steps of the police seem unfair. Many leaders of India Inc have voiced their concerns against this move. They fear that this move would lead to a shortage of independent directors in the corporate sector.
Police have already arrested Nagarjuna Finance Chairman K S Raju, and PK Madhav, former director of Nagarjuna Finance and the then Maytas Infra CEO, on December 15.
Kampani is founder of the JM Financial Group of companies and is one of the richest people in India. The Mumbai based investment banker and high-profile deal maker, was one of the non-executive directors of Nagarjuna Finance when it raised deposits from the public. He is being targeted nine years after having stepped down.