Nitin Desai, a Bollywood art director whose body was discovered at his Karjat studio in Maharashtra’s Raigad region early on Wednesday, may have committed suicide as a result of financial difficulties, according to police sources. Notably, the Mumbai bench of the NCLT (National Company Law Tribunal) ordered “initiation of Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP)” against Nitin Desai’s company, ND’s Art World Private Limited, in its judgement on July 25.
The petition against corporate debtor ND’s Art World Private Limited was initially brought by financial creditor CFM Asset Reconstruction Private Limited for unpaid debt of Rs 252.48 crore, according to the NCLT judgement.
According to the ruling, ND’s Art World requested ECL Finance Limited (ECLFL) for a loan up to a maximum of Rs. 150 crore, and in November 2016, ECLFL approved a loan for that amount. It further claims that in addition to the initial loan arrangement, Nitin Desai, his wife Naina Desai, and KND Investments and Finance Private Limited signed a number of security documents to safeguard the loan.
Image Source: IE; Authorities spotted at Nitin Desai’s ND Art World in Karjat.
Later in 2018, the business petitioned the ECLFL once more in order to obtain a loan of Rs 35 crore; the loan was approved, but the corporate debtor only received Rs 31 crore.
Thus, the entire loan amounted to Rs 181 crore. On March 30, 2020, ND’s Art World was categorised as SMA-2 in the records of the ECLFL.
The business (ND’s Art World) missed to make the two loans’ interest payments on January 31, 2020, totaling Rs 4.17 crore. The account was deemed a non-performing asset (NPA) on March 31, 2021 since the business was in default on the whole amount owed. The business missed the payment of the second loan, totaling Rs 33.24 crore, on March 31, 2022. The company missed its whole main payment of the first loan, totaling Rs. 147.37 crore, on May 9, 2022.
Despite this loan recall notice, ND’s Art World did not make a payment, and as of June 30, 2022, the total default amount was Rs 252.48 crore.