P&H HC Directs Trial Court To Adjourn Proceedings Against Aviral Jain, MD, Duff and Phelps

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has directed the Trial Court to adjourn the case involving petitioner Aviral Jain, MD, Duff and Phelps. Jain was named in the charge sheet filed by Haryana Police against Resolution Professional Ashwini Mehra and Tarun Bhatia - MD, Kroll Associates in an alleged case of financial irregularity in the insolvency proceedings of Educomp Infrastructure and Schools Management. The petitioner has been accused of cheating and criminal conspiracy in the said charge sheet. 

The Senior Counsel representing Jain contended that he has been wrongly arraigned as accused in the matter. 

"Even if the allegations levelled in the instant FIR as also in the final report are taken in its entirety, it does not disclose participation of the petitioner in the commission of any cognizable offence in any manner whatsoever," he said.

Sheding light on the factual matrix of the case, the petitioner’s counsel informed the Court that Jain's concerned Company Duff & Phelps had acquired the company namely Kroll Associates. 

The advisory company had been assigned the work of forensic audit by the Committee of Creditors in the pending proceedings before the NCLT. However, advocate Gurmohan Bedi appearing for Mr. Dandona pointed to the conflict of interest concerns arising out of the resolution professional Mehra’s relationship with Duff and Phelps. 

The concern was put before the COC and the appointment of the resolution professional was cleared. NCLT Chandigarh further put a stamp of approval to the appointment while concurring with the view that there were no irregularities found in the process. 

In a clarificatory statement, Mehra has said that The relationship between the audit firms was also made known to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT).

VK Dandona, former director of EISML had filed a complaint against Mehra based on a whistle-blower’s report.

L&L Partners Law Office's led by R.S. Rai, Sr. Advocate assisted by. Rajat Khanna, Advocate,. Anshul Sehgal, Advocate, Sanjeev Kumar, Piyush Mishra Advocate, Ashutosh, Advocate and Ms. Rubina Veermani, Advocate for Aviral Jain. 

 Advocate Gurmohan Bedi appeared for Mr. Dandona.