Zee founder , during an 18-minute interaction with followers on Instagram on Monday, largely shifted his focus away from his recent allegations against billionaire Mukesh Ambani and instead defended his personal insolvency resolution plan and spoke about repayment of outstanding dues by borrowers linked to the Essel Group.
The interaction, which was attended by around 560 people at its peak, came two days after accused Reliance-linked media outlets of running a campaign against him. Reliance had rejected the allegations as baseless, PTI reported.
Chandra says borrowers will repay outstanding dues
Chandra said he met borrowers linked to the Essel Group on Sunday and that they had agreed to repay their outstanding obligations to lenders.
According to Chandra, the borrowers number around 85 and are loosely associated with the Essel Group. He said they told him their outstanding bank debt was about ₹990 crore.
‘I was merely a guarantor’
Chandra said the ₹22,006 crore figure had been widely misunderstood as it represented claims arising from personal guarantees he had provided for loans taken by companies associated with the Essel Group, rather than money he had personally borrowed.
He said he was merely a guarantor and that only one or two of the borrower entities were linked to his family.
Chandra said he had acted as a guarantor for 18 to 20 borrowing entities, all directly or indirectly linked to the Essel Group.
Responding to a query, Chandra said he only endorsed guarantees for people he personally knew, including family members or close associates.
However, he acknowledged that providing these guarantees was perhaps his “biggest mistake”, saying it was what led to his current situation.
Chandra defends ₹6.5 crore repayment plan
Chandra also defended the personal insolvency resolution plan approved by the (NCLT).
The plan proposes to pay about ₹6.25 crore from his personal estate against admitted creditor claims of roughly ₹22,006 crore. Chandra said he was prepared to contribute ₹6.5 crore.
He said his net worth had been about ₹39 crore when he entered the Rajya Sabha and had subsequently fallen by about ₹8 crore.
After excluding a residential property valued at ₹25 crore, Chandra said the Resolution Professional had assessed his available assets at about ₹6.79 crore.
Chandra said his total assets currently stand at around ₹31 crore, reflecting a decline of nearly ₹8 crore over the last decade.
Creditors have challenged the low recovery proposed under his insolvency plan, citing earlier net-worth disclosures and seeking greater scrutiny of his assets.
Lenders challenge low recovery
Several lenders, including HDFC Bank and LIC Housing Finance, are preparing to challenge the NCLT order before the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal.
Dissenting lenders have alleged that five entities linked to Chandra’s family together controlled 61.78% of the voting share and were instrumental in pushing through his personal insolvency resolution plan.
The plan received 80.814% approval in the committee of creditors (CoC), according to a 144-page NCLT order. The matter will now return to the original division bench for a formal order in line with the majority opinion.