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Home > Mumbai > Mumbai News > Article > Hotel Centaur deal is back to haunt Sahara boss

Hotel Centaur deal is back to haunt Sahara boss

Updated on: 01 June,2009 07:48 AM IST  | 
Aditya Anand |

Subroto Roy named in petition by former HCI employees levying charges of criminal intimidation and attempt to murder

Hotel Centaur deal is back to haunt Sahara boss

Subroto Roy named in petition by former HCI employees levying charges of criminal intimidation and attempt to murder

Former employees of Air India's Hotel Corporation of India (HCI) have named Sahara's Subroto Roy as an accused in the seven-year-old Centaur Hotel sale case. In a petition filed before the Metropolitan Magistrate Court in Andheri, the petitioners had levied grievous accusations against the Saharashree and seven others.

The petitioners have pleaded that action be taken for attempt to murder, criminal intimidation etc against the accused.

On the basis of the complaint, the court directed the Airport police to conduct an enquiry into the accusations and submit their report by July 20.

In an FIR registered with the Mumbai airport police station on Friday, employees also alleged that 677 employees of HCI were forcibly offered VRS in 2005.

Leading the 677 HCI employees is Surendra Gajbhiye. "The HCI, Sahara, and Batra managements have time and again threatened our workers and forced them to take voluntary retirement after the hotel changed hands," he alleged.

The hotel workers had earlier moved the Bombay High Court seeking to expand scope of the CBI into the Centaur sale and probe into alleged forceful retrenchment by the new owners. Spokespersons for Batra Hospitality and Sahara India Parivar refused to comment saying, "the matter was sub judice."

Disappearing profit
The case pertains to April 2002, when Batra Hospitality Ltd (BHPL) bought the Centaur Hotel from the HCI for Rs 83 crore in step with the government's plans to disinvest the loss-making public sector undertakings (PSUs). But in October 2002, the Sahara India group bought the hotel from BHPL for Rs 115 crore, thereby giving BHPL a profit of Rs 32 crore u2014 prompting the 677 HCI employees to point out to the huge loss incurred by the Indian exchequer. The hotel is now operating under the brand name Sahara Star.




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