Its new and probably
most significant turn in Oswal’s family feud so far; Pankaj Oswal, the eldest
son of Late business tycoon Abhey Oswal has filed a petition with Delhi high
court on February 4, 2017 claiming his absolute
proprietary rights to the extent of 1/4th undivided share in the estate of his
father being class-1 legal heir. Pankaj has alleged in the petition that rest
of the 3 heirs, his mother Aruna oswal, younger brother Shailendra Oswal
and sister Shalu jindal are attempting to oust him from the estate of his
father including suit properties.
For Oswals, acrid time
in the family began as soon as Abhey Oswal died of heart attack on March 29th
last year. Business tycoon of his time Oswal died in Russia while he was on a
business tour. He left his enormous empire without a will or testamentary
document regarding disposition of his assets, interest in businesses, movable
and immovable properties. Since then a succession battle broke out between his
widow Aruna Oswal and eldest son Pankaj Oswal. Both have been staking their
claims to run his business empire that includes two listed firms Oswal Agro
Mills and Oswal Greentech.
In the petition filed
with Delhi high court Pankaj claims that while he along with his wife had moved
to Australia, there was no partition, formal or informal, between him and his
father. In fact, both son and father shared good relations and he and his
parents used to visit each other often. He also claimed him being made to wear the traditional pagdi (turban)
of the family in the Pagdi rasm held on April 3rd 2016 after
the death of his father. Wearing Pagdi was a sign that the Oswal
family recognized him as the main heir to head the business empire. Petition
says that after the Pagdi
rasm was over a board meeting of OAML and OGL was secretly convened
behind Pankaj’s back. Very recently he came to know that a resolution was
passed in the said meeting of Board of Directors of OAML and OGL appointing his
mother Aruna Oswal as the additional Director and Chairperson of both the
companies. Interestingly, OAML and OGL have considerable assets and hold
substantial shares in other companies, inter alia, PC Media
Systems Ltd., New Delhi Television Ltd., News Nation Network Pvt. Ltd., Monnet
Ispat and Energy Pvt. Ltd. and other group companies.
Unaware of the
sabotage taking place behind him Pankaj oswal proposed to convene a meeting
with rest of the 3 heirs on April 4, 2016 at OAML’s office at Kasturba Gandhi
Marg, New Delhi to formally execute the consensus arrived at on April 3, 2016
after Pagdi rasm. Also a draft memorandum of family settlement was
prepared by him for formal execution and for sharing with them. As soon as
Pankaj reached at the said place for meeting he was taken for surprise that
none of the other 3 had turned up. His surprise soon turned into shock as he
called up his mother to ascertain the reason for not turning up. On phone her
mother Aruna asked him to leave India immediately and not seek any share in the
assets of Abhey Kumar Oswal. Astonishedly his brother and sister too supported
her mother and asked that he should forget about his share in the estate of his
late father. Deeply upset and shocked Pankaj then came to know the dirty truth
and ulterior motives of his own blood relations to oust him from the family
assets.
On April 6, 2016 after getting confirmed of the
ulterior motives of his own mother, brother and sister, Pankaj got a legal
notice served to them seeking their confirmation that no action inconsistent
with his rights be taken as regards the assets comprising the estate of his
late father. Unfortunately till date none of them have responded to the said
legal notice. Further on October 21 & November 7, 2016 through his lawyers,
he got another legal notice issued to the Companies, Banks and third parties
where or with whom Late Abhey Kumar Oswal had substantial holdings or business
dealings asserting his rights as Class I legal heir of late Abhey Kumar Oswal.
Clearly no evidence is required anymore to establish Pankaj Oswal’s right to
1/4th share in his late father’s estate is undisputed as none
of the rest of the 3 heirs responded so far to any of the legal notices.
In the petition Pankaj
has alleged that rest of the heirs are looking for prospective buyers to
alienate the assets, properties and business interests of his late father by
masquerading such disposal of assets as transactions in ordinary course of
business. Accordingly he has sought instant interference of the court in
partition and has requested court to direct the rest of the heirs to transfer
and/or hand over exclusive possession of such properties which fall in his
share. Also granting permanent injunction restraining rest of the heirs, their
agents and representatives from transferring, alienating or creating any third
party interest of whatsoever nature in respect of the his share of the assets.
Seeing the nature and importance of the petition Delhi high court has listed
the hearing of the matter on the 8th of February 2017.
