'Malicious complaints', says Indiabulls Housing Finance after ED searches premises in Mumbai

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Hours after the Enforcement Directorate searched premises of Indiabulls Housing Finance in Mumbai on February 21, the company informed the stock exchanges that the complaints levelled against it are "malacious".

The firm, in a regulatory filing, said the ED has sought information regarding certain clients in connection to a case that was registered against it by Ashutosh Kamble, a Palghar-based investor, in April last year.

The Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) was registered by ED against Indiabulls Housing, promoter Sameer Gehlaut, and other related companies and individuals based on the complaint.

"The ECIR registered by ED stems out of an FIR filed by one Ashutosh Kamble who is part of the long-running extortion and blackmail racket against the company," Indiabulls said.

"The FIR is a copy-and-paste of earlier several patently false, vexatious and malicious complaints that the blackmailers have been circulating for last 3 years now, a similar allegations petition under name of Abhay Yadav was dismissed by the Supreme Court in 2019," it added.

The company informed the stock exchanges that it had approached the Bombay High Court last year to seek the dismissal of the "false and malicious FIR filed in Palghar".

The division bench of the court had, on April 27, 2021, "passed a detailed order staying all investigations in the matter", Indiabulls pointed out.

Notably, the complainant, Kamble, had claimed that he faced devaluation of his shares due to alleged misdealings in the period ranging from 2014 to 2020, a Business Standard report had said. He had also levelled accusations in connection with alleged misappropriation of funds against Gehlaut and other directors.