Juice maker hijacks board meet, keeps independent directors out ( Exclusive)

On September 12 adding fuel to the fire in the ongoing dirty tricks saga at the ManPasand Beverages board room battle, three independent directors Jitendra Divare, Uday Kamath and Bipin Rathod have revolted against the yoke of the promoter intensifying the battle at the beleaguered company.

The sequence of events is laughable and yet serious - at 2.19 pm, company circulated the notice of a board meeting vide email without giving adequate notice period as required under the Companies Act, equally agenda notes were not annexed. The independent directors then requested for an audio call unsuccessfully. Then Uday Kamath tried calling CMD, WTD and Bharati Naik from Dhivare's mobile.

In what can be called hijacking the board, CMD was called at 5.09 pm and he wanted to know who was on the line? When Kamath replied and asked for an audio con call, Dhirendra Singh disconnected, saying hello, hello several times. WTD Abhishek Singh was then contacted at 5.11 and 5.12 pm, the first was found switched off and second said that incoming calls were barred.

Independent director Bharati Naik was then tried at 5.15, she replied that she was at home and had no intimation that there was a board meeting scheduled. At 5.28 Bipin Rathod got a call saying that Dhirendra Singh, Abhishek Singh and Bharati Naik were present for a board meeting which was to start and requested him to join.

Then in what can only be described as bizarre, at 5.33 the three independent directors called the mobile which had said the meeting started to join and shockingly were told by Dhirendra Singh that the meeting was already over (5.28 to 5.33 pm precisely five minutes) and minutes would be forwarded to them.

The sheer unprofessional and unethical manner of conducting the board meeting has raised the hackles of the independent directors who for a change seem to be doing their job. They have now written to the rest of the promoter led board that all resolutions passed are null and void since they were not present. They have since forwarded this letter to all bankers of ManPasand.

( With inputs from IANS )