2 firms owned by TMC leader Mondal’s daughter got ₹27cr in 2018-22

The loan amounts were declared under a new rule notified under the Companies Act in 2014 primarily to help funding of start-ups, shows the acceptance of deposits statements filed by the two companies since March 2019

Kolkata: Two companies owned by Trinamool Congress (TMC) strongman Anubrata Mondal’s daughter, a primary schoolteacher, received ₹27.73 crore between 2018-22 as deposit from either another company or from their own directors, documents seen by HT show.

CBI wants to question his daughter, Sukanya Mondal . A CBI official who asked not to be named said the agency is looking at whether either of the companies was used to launder money received from cattle smuggling. (Saikat Paul)

The loan amounts were declared under a new rule notified under the Companies Act in 2014 primarily to help funding of start-ups, shows the acceptance of deposits statements filed by the two companies since March 2019. The way in which the money as routed into the companies -- anonymously -- raises questions, as does the purpose for which the companies, which generate profits in lakhs, needed the money.

Mondal, who was in the custody of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) since August 11 in the cattle smuggling case in which thousands of cows seized from cattle smugglers at the India-Bangladesh border were allegedly auctioned cheaply back to the people seeking to smuggle them out, was on Wednesday sent to 14 days of judicial custody by a local CBI court in Asandol.

CBI wants to question his daughter, Sukanya Mondal . A CBI official who asked not to be named said the agency is looking at whether either of the companies was used to launder money received from cattle smuggling.

ORIGIN OF COMPANIES

Sukanya Mondal , who was appointed as a teacher after the first TMC government was formed in 2011, is director of Neer Developer Pvt Ltd and ANM Agrochem Foods Pvt Ltd, the two companies under the CBI scanner.

The other director of these companies is Bidyut Baran Gayen, an employee of Bolpur town municipality where Mondal lives.

Anubrata Mondal holds 2,500 shares in ANM Agrochem Foods. His daughter owns the remaining 7,500 shares. In Neer Developer Pvt. Ltd, a real estate company, Sukanya Mondal owns 71,400 shares, and Gayen 6,500.

ANM Agrochem was originally formed and registered by other founders as Bansal Mobile Services Pvt Ltd in 2011, records show. The company’s name was changed in August 2017 when Gayen and Sukanya Mondal joined as directors.

Similarly, Neer Developer was originally registered in 2006 as B & B Rice & Food Pvt Products Pvt Ltd based at Suri town in Birbhum. The name was changed in 2010. Gayen joined as director in 2018, followed by Sukanya Mondal in 2019.

On August 21, a CBI team visited Bolpur and found three houses linked to Bidyut Baran Gayen. His relatives told the CBI team that he was in Kolkata for medical treatment.

The two companies now have their offices at the same address where Bholebam Rice Mill, which is owned by Sukanya Mondal, is located at Bolpur. According to documents seen by HT, the two companies are tenants of the rice mill and each pay a monthly rent of ₹500. CBI raided the mill on August 19.

BENEFIT OF RULE

As per filings with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Neer Developer and ANM Agrochem Foods said the money they received between 2018 and 2022 was “not considered as deposit” under rule 2 (1) (C) of Companies (Acceptance of Deposit) Rules 2014.

“Basically, this is done not to reveal source of the money received and ensure timely repayment,” said a Delhi-based chartered account, who reviewed the documents for HT on condition of anonymity.

Under Rule 2 (1) (c), money received from governments, loans from foreign companies or Indian banks and financial institutions, other companies, and directors (from their own funds) are not considered deposits.

The two companies declared the acceptance of money under rule 16 of the Companies (Acceptance of Deposit) Rules 2014 which also allows deposits or loans received from directors or relatives of the directors, not declared under rule 2 (1) (C). Declarations under rule 16 are to be declared mandatorily in form no DPT-3.

A Kolkata-based lawyer who asked not to be named said certain clauses in the Companies (Acceptance of Deposit) Rules, 2014 were introduced by the Centre mainly to encourage start-ups. In a 2020 amendment, the tenure for repayment of loan was doubled in certain cases.

In the year 2021-22, Neer Developer Pvt Ltd was shown to have received ₹2.1 crore from “any other company” and ₹2.7 crore from “a person who, at the time of the receipt of the amount, was a director of the company or the relative of the director of a private company”.

Acceptance of loan from these same sources was declared by Neer Developer for the financial years 2020-21, 2019-20 and 2018-19. The amounts were ₹2.2 crore, ₹35 lakh, ₹1.1 crore, ₹38 lakh and ₹45 lakh, respectively.

In a similar declaration for 2021-22, ANM Agrochem said it received ₹4 crore from “any other company” and ₹2.9 crore from “a person who, at the time of the receipt of the amount, was a director of the company or the relative of the director of a private company.”

Loan was declared to have been accepted from these same sources by ANM Agrochem for the financial years 2020-21, 2019-20 and 2018-19. The amounts were ₹2.1 crore, ₹3.8 crore, ₹15 lakh, ₹3.8 crore and ₹1.7 crore, respectively.

The 14 receipts over four financial years add up to ₹27.73 crore, according to mandatory declaration of the two companies to the ministry. The companies did not use the provision to receive money before 2018.

No loan was taken from any bank or financial institution by the two companies during this entire period, the declarations show.

LOW PROFIT

In the 2020- 21 balance sheet, Neer Developer said the company’s net profit in 2020-21 was ₹17 lakh, down from ₹60 lakh the previous year. The description of product and services in the balance sheet was declared as “rice” although Neer Developer is a real estate company. This is being probed by CBI.

ANM Agrochem Foods had a net profit was 5.14 lakh in 2020-21 against ₹24.25 lakh in 2019-20.

CBI suspects that Mondal, who studied till Class 8 and never held any public office or contested an election, acquired a large number of property and businesses, most of which are registered in the names of his relatives and aides. He is president of the TMC’s Birbhum unit.

Before joining the TMC during its formation in 1998, Mondal used to run a small grocery shop and sell fish at the local market, Bolpur residents said. His wife, Chhabi Mondal, a homemaker, died of cancer in 2020. She, too, held shares in ANM Agrochem and lent money to the company, audit reports show.

Mondal’s lawyer Sandipan Ganguly told a CBI court on August 20, when his client’s remand application was being heard that Bholebam Rice Mill was a gift to Mondal from his father-in-law even as local people claimed that the mill was purchased by the TMC leader in 2013. CBI found that it was registered in the name of Mondal’s daughter and wife.

While leaving the court on August 20, Mondal said; “I do not own any benami property.”

Gayen and Sukanya Mondal did not respond to calls .

Sanjib Kumar Dawn, Anubrata Mondal’s lawyer, said all records relating to the companies are in order.

“The businesses are legitimate and everything is shown in tax returns. If there was anything suspicious, the income tax department would have raised questions in the past. CBI is forcibly trying to implicate Anubrata Mondal in the cattle smuggling case,” Dawn told HT.

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee spoke in Mondal’s support at a TMC rally on August 14. “What has Kesto done?” she said, referring to the Birbhum leader by his nickname and lambasting CBI and the Centre.