Along with three other people, Rashesh Shah, a non-executive and non-independent director of Edelweiss ARC (Asset Reconstruction Company), and Raj Kumar Bansal, the company's managing director and CEO, are named as defendants in the police report accusing them of aiding Nitin Desai's suicide. Two days after Desai's death, which was allegedly caused by suicide in his Karjat studio, Neha, Desai's wife, filed the FIR at the Khalapur police station.
Keyur Mehta and Smit Shah, who work for Edelweiss subsidiary ECL Finance, and Jitendra Kothari, the administrator chosen by the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) as an interim resolution expert, are the other three accused. Neha Desai claims in the FIR that the defendants pressed her husband to pay back an unpaid loan and tried to seize control of his ND Film World Studio in Karjat because he had not made loan payments. Desai owed the creditor company a total of £25.2 million.
Edelweiss ARC’s company secretary Tarun Khurana, while offering condolences on Desai’s death, stated the firm followed all legal processes as mandated by RBI and has not acted in any manner outside of the legal framework. “Neither was the interest rate charged excessive nor was there at any time undue pressure being put on the borrower for recovery,” he stated.