Subhash Chandra says NCLT insolvency claim is ₹3,992 crore, not ₹22,000 crore as reported

Essel Group founder Dr Subhash Chandra has said media reports on his personal insolvency proceedings before the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) have “selectively” interpreted the tribunal’s order and overstated the claims against him.

In a statement issued on Thursday, Chandra said he had not borrowed money from any lender and was involved in the insolvency proceedings as a personal guarantor for loans raised by various borrowing entities.

Chandra said certain media houses were spreading “wrong information” about his personal insolvency matter and urged platforms “to publish the facts and to remove any mis-information, that is incorrectly interpreted from the Court order.”

“Dr. Chandra has not borrowed any money from any lender. Dr. Chandra is only a personal guarantor,” the statement said.

According to the statement, lenders who objected to the repayment plan had filed claims totalling ₹3,992 crore. Of this, ₹620 crore had been settled, while the borrowing entities had offered to pay approximately ₹1,113 crore to multiple lenders in this category. The release’s opening key points, however, refer to ₹1,063 crore offered by the borrowing entities.

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Chandra also disputed the use of the ₹22,006 crore figure in reports. He said the amount represented total claims filed in the insolvency case, of which ₹21,696 crore were admitted.

“All the numbers being quoted in the reports as judgement are taken from the documents were as total claims filed. It does not represent the current status,” he said.

Repayment plan approved by creditors

The repayment plan was approved by 80.814% of creditors when it was put to vote, according to Chandra’s statement. Some financial creditors and lenders subsequently filed objections before the NCLT against approval of the plan.

Chandra said the total outstanding of the borrowing companies was close to ₹45,000 crore on January 24, 2019, of which nearly ₹43,000 crore had been repaid since then. The borrowing entities have also assured that they will settle any other amount that may remain outstanding, he said.

The statement said Chandra could pay what he had available with him and that the ₹6.5-crore repayment plan had been arrived at on that basis.

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Chandra disputes net worth claims

Chandra also addressed reports concerning his net worth. He disputed a lender’s claim that his net worth was ₹45,888 crore in 2017, saying the figure was derived from the market capitalisation of Essel Group entities.

He said he had declared total assets of ₹39.08 crore before Parliament in 2016, while his personal net worth had come down to ₹31.79 crore in 2024. The statement said this included a residential house worth close to ₹25 crore.

Chandra described recent reports as “selective reporting”, saying media outlets had picked and chosen select parts of the proceedings “to sensationalize the entire matter”.

He also said the judge’s opinion was yet to be converted into a formal order. “Hence the matter is still (technically) pending in NCLT court,” he said.