Indiabulls Housing Finance falls 8% after plea in SC alleges financial fraud, company denies allegations

The petition alleged that money was siphoned off by Sameer Gehlaut,  chairman of the firm, and the directors of Indiabulls for their personal use.

Abhay Yadav, the petitioner who claimed to be an IHFL shareholder, alleged that Gehlaut, with the help of Harish Fabiani, an NRI based in Spain, allegedly created multiple "shell companies" to which IHFL loaned huge sums of money under "bogus and non-existent pretexts".

These companies further transferred the loan amount to other companies which were either run, directed or operated by Gehlaut, his family members or other directors of Indiabulls, the plea alleged.

In response to these reports, IHFL said in a release that the total loans on the books of the company are approximately Rs 90,000 crore and hence the allegation of siphoning off Rs 98,000 crore is 'bizarre'.

The company blamed the allegations on a racket by blackmailers who plan to extort money by threatening of false complaints.

"We wish to state that a racket of blackmailers have been trying to extort money from Indiabulls over last 2 months threatening to write complaints to various government departments alleging siphoning off of Rs 55,000 crores if Rs 10 crores weren't paid to them. Indiabulls did not succumb to pressures of the blackmailers and instead chose to file an FIR against such people on June 4," the company said.

The company believes the impending merger with Laxmi Vilas Bank has made it an easy target for blackmailers who are taking advantage of the critical regulatory process it is involved in. Lakshmi Vilas Bank also fell 6.4 percent post the news.