Subhash Chandra has disputed a claim of around ₹3,900 crore filed against him in the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), saying that the bulk of the debt raised by his group had already been repaid. In his first detailed reaction to the NCLT proceedings, Chandra said the matter relates to personal guarantees he had given to some lenders and questioned the basis of claims filed before the tribunal.
In a video message, Chandra said his group had originally borrowed around ₹45,000 crore, of which about ₹43,000 crore has been repaid, leaving around ₹2,000 crore outstanding from companies whose assets and liabilities, he said, were mismatched.
According to Chandra, the NCLT proceedings against him were related only to personal guarantees that he had provided to certain lenders. He said some of the lenders had already received their money but still submitted claims before the tribunal.
"I had signed some personal guarantees to some lenders. And I don't know why, but some lenders' entire money was also repaid. But they also entered their claim in NCLT," he said.
Chandra said there were multiple such cases and claimed that about ₹2,000 crore of the ₹3,900 crore claim came from lenders who had never invoked a personal guarantee.
Chandra also said the Resolution Professionals appointed by the court accepted the claims submitted by the lenders.
He said claims amounting to around ₹620 crore have been settled, while the borrowing entities of his group have an offer of around ₹1,100 crore with lenders.
"The borrowing entities still have an offer of ₹1,100 crore with the lenders," Chandra said, adding that the entities of his group remained committed to repaying creditors.
Chandra said his approach to repayment had been shaped by his belief that money owed to others should be returned.
"This is my belief. And this is what the elders have taught that whoever has to give, should be given," he said.
Defending his record on repayment, Chandra said he had acknowledged mistakes after his group's financial problems emerged in January 2019.
He recalled writing an open letter on 24 January 2019, saying that he had made mistakes and would repay the money owed by the group's borrowing entities.
Chandra said he subsequently pushed the borrowing entities to repay their obligations and claimed that his family had sold assets to help meet the repayments.
"We sold our family's assets, we sold our assets, we almost sold Company Z, we did not keep anything, we even rented our house, but we paid everyone's money," he said.
He claimed that the group had repaid around ₹43,000 crore of the original ₹45,000 crore borrowing.
