Rotomac's Kothari was among top invitees to UP summit

LUCKNOW: Barely a week before he was taken into CBI custody on charges of defaulting on bank loans to the tune of Rs 3,000 crore,

Rotomac

chairman

Vikram Kothari

was among the top 100 key invitees to the mega UP investor summit.


Kothari’s name was removed from the list soon after his company’s loan defaults became public. The initial invitee list prepared by the UP government — TOI has a copy of it — had Kothari’s name at the 88th spot, followed by the name of his brother and chairman of Pan Parag group, Deepak Kothari. The list, which began with Mukesh Ambani, comprised 113 top industrialists and corporate heads.

Sources said all the key invitees were supposed to interact with chief minister Yogi Adityanath and other senior ministers during the investor meet and pledge investments.

Industry minister Satish Mahana said Kothari’s name was included well before the reports of his company defaulting on loan payments came to light. “We invite industrialists based on their profile not after looking at their balance sheets.

Kothari

happened to be a noted businessman before the alleged bank fraud case came to light. No one can predict these things,” Mahana said.