Zee chief sues Ketan Parekh for Rs 90cr

mumbai: the essel group of companies controlled by media baron subhash chandra has sued stockbroker ketan parekh and his companies for 90 crore for neither delivering shares bought for the essel group nor repaying the money paid in lieu of the market purchases of technology stocks. the essel group has filed four suits against the beleaguered stock broker at the mumbai high court last week to recover the amount, the spokesperson of essel group said.a sum of rs 220 crore was lend to parekh in march 2000 and april 2001 by chandra's investment companies --churu trading, prajatma and gajan trading in four transactions for buying the shares. the money was lend to parekh firms--saimangal invest trade and panther invest trade. while two transactions were undertaken by saimangal invest trade, the other two transactions were done by panther invest trade of parekh, the spokesperson of essel group said. essel group is the vehicle for investments made by chandra's firms. the shares were expected to be delivered to essel group within fifteen days of the transaction in march and april, the spokesperson said. the spokesperson said the group is planning to file more suits for around rs 130 crore for the same reason. "at present we are evaluating the entire transactions to parekh firms. we will be filing suit close to rs 130 crore later depending upon the advice from our legal department", he added. essel group had lent money to ketan parekh to acquire shares in the media and technology stocks earlier this year. the group had identified stocks including shonk technologies, tips industries and muktha arts for acquiring stake. the group had also asked parekh to buy unlisted stocks like amithabh bachchan corporation ltd (abcl) and b4u stocks through private equity deals. efforts to contact parekh proved futile since he was neither available at his office nor at home. it may be recalled that chandra had confirmed lending around rs 220 crore to parekh for market operations for which the media baron is presently diluting his stake to repay the loans to his parent company zee telefilms ltd.