Shoe pinches: Sunil Gavaskar to appear in Vadodara court

Indian cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar will appear before additional session judge KJ Dasondi in connection with a case pertaining to a shoe company Topline Shoes Limited of Vadodara.

Dasondi had earlier issued a bailable warrant against Gavaskar as he failed to appear before the court. Few days back, Gavaskar had submitted an application through his advocate with a prayer that the little master was willing to be present in person when required under the law of court and prayed for the cancellation of the warrant issued against him. The court later ordered cancellation of the bailable warrant.

The warrant was issued by the additional sessions judge, Vadodara, after the registrar of companies (ROC), Gujarat, filed cases against Gavaskar and five others for false statement in violation of Companies Act 1956, on June 25, 2002.

The matter dates back to 1991, when Sunil Gavaskar and others, including Duleep Singh, HMG Murthy, Vinod Mistry and Arun L Kapani, started the process for setting up a factory to produce sports shoes and other sports materials.

The company christened as Topline Shoes Ltd was to be set up at RC Dutt Road, Alkapuri in Vadodara for which they had registered the company with the ROC, Gujarat, on April 1991.  Advocate Noor Mohammed Shaikh, who is appearing on behalf of the ROC, Gujarat, said, "On June 11, 1992, the six board members of the company issued a prospectus and made a public issue of shares in July 1992."

The public issue was fully subscribed, raising Rs4.65 crore. Commercial production by the company was projected to start in October 1992, he said.

However, the company did not implement the project. "The statement made in the prospectus was thus not fulfilled. This amounted to deception, and by doing so all the six persons have committed default and are liable to be punished under the companies act." A show-cause notice dated June 7, 2002 was served on them. A bailable warrant was issued against Gavaskar, who on April 11, 2008 filed a revision application.