binod takia wala
Vendors accuse Home Shop 18 of fraudulently usurping Rs 150-200 Crore as 1500
families face financial bankruptcy
#Noida Police not lodging complaint due to involvement of powerful and mighty in the
fraud
#Association claimed the company usurped Rs 150 – 200 Crores – Operations shutdown
since last 4 months – CEO and Other Key Management persons not reachable
#Unpaid Vendors have requested to the President / PM / FM / CM(UP) for respectful
death as they are not able to survive
New Delhi: Home Shop 18 Vendors Association held a Press Conference on September 27 at
the Press Club of India in New Delhi and accused the TV shopping marketplace of committing a
fraud of Rs 150-200 Crore.
The association claimed that Home Shop 18 has fraudulently usurped Rs 150-200 Crore which
is collected from consumers on behalf of the sellers acting as an intermediary. Dues have
accrued since the time the company was a part of the Network18 group.
Addressing the media, the Home Shop 18 Vendors Association lamented that due to the fear of
powerful people behind it, there is inaction by the police, administration, ministries and other
government agencies. In spite of several attempts to lodge FIR against FRAUD, Police Station
at Noida has bluntly refused to lodge an FIR and investigate the matter.Vendor Association also
presented a reply by Reserve Bank of India under whom this offence is a punishable offence
and shared their plight along with documentary evidence against Home Shop 18.
Home Shop 18 Vendor Association represents more than 1500 families who have been cheated
of their hard-earned money and left with financial bankruptcy.
On 7th June, hundreds of vendors of HomeShop18 – the biggest teleshopping company –
suffered from a shock when they came to know that the company has been taken over by a very
small real estate company namely Skyblue Buildwell, which acquired an 82.64% stake in TV18
Home Shopping Network.
Homeshop18 or popularly known as HS18 was launched in 2008. In 2014, Reliance Industries
took over Network18 and HS18. In 2018, it merged with Shop CJ Network Pvt. Ltd and became
the largest teleshopping network in India. Manish Kalra was appointed as the new CEO.
"Till the beginning of this year, the company was running smoothly and the company was on the
verge of break even. But in March the vendors were not paid on time and the senior
management (CFO Gurvinder Singh and other Finance people) kept on saying that the CEO
Manish Kalra is in Mumbai and discussing with Reliance for funds and they will release the
funds soon. In April, Manish Kalra and Gurvinder Singh started saying that as the General
Elections are going on and FDI is involved, the payments would be made after 12th May 2019
after the elections get over. But no payment was made to vendors," said Himanshu Khatter,
President, Home Shop 18 Vendors Association.
"As per our agreement, we were supposed to get our money in 45 days, but that never
happened," said Himanshu, who is also vendor from Delhi and used to sell beauty products
through the channel.
Himanshu, who owes nearly Rs 1.5 Crore dues, says that the situation has worsened in the past
three months. He said that he has even sold his wife’s jewellery to pay the interest on the
amount borrowed from private money lenders.
“We have protested outside Network 18 Office in Film City and also at Jantar Mantar, but no
one is paying heed," he claims further.
"At the time of the acquisition, Surendra Lunia and Sunil Batra were the directors at Skyblue
Buildwell. However, the current directors are Suchita Harenbhai Vaidya and Ripal Paragbhai
Patel as per MCA data. The company has been exchanging hands frequently in the last 4
months, which indicates a Fraud being done by the directors to usurp the money of the vendors.
Surendra Lunia is a former director of Reliance Jio Infocomm and former CEO of HFCL
(Himachal Futuristic Communications Limited), a company promoted by Mahendra Nahata, an
industrialist who is also on the JIO board. This clearly shows the association between Skyblue
and Reliance," claims Girish Gupta,Secretary, Home Shop 18 Vendors Association.
Girish owes a whopping Rs 3 Crore from the company and informed that most of the vendors
are on the verge of Bankruptcy/Insolvency as they are unable to repay their creditors and
money lenders.
According to its latest financial records (FY18), Skyblue had a total net worth of Rs 7.57 Lacs,
with no employees expenses, which shows that it is a shell company, where the net worth of
HS18 in March 2018 was Rs 305 Crores, as per the audited balance sheet submitted at the site
of MCA.
Vendors have filed various complaints against the company with various Government bodies
such as Economic Offences Wing (EOW), Delhi; Senior Superintendent of Police, (SSP),
Surajpur, Noida; Ministry of Corporate Affairs, (MCA), Delhi.
"We have also sent letters to the Honourable President of India, Prime Minister, Finance
Minister and Reserve Bank of India. Due to fear of powerful people and corporates behind the
fraud, no action has been taken by police, administration, ministries and other government
agencies. In spite of several attempts to get our complaints registered, we have not been able to
get our FIR registered at Noida or Delhi," Himanshu added further.
The Association further added that one of the vendors, namely Rajesh Sachdeva, suffered a
massive cardiac arrest on 2nd August 2019, as his creditors were pressurising him for
payments, and he had no money to repay as he has invested everything in Homeshop18.
