Manpasand Beverages GST fraud case: Chirag Doshi resigns as director; shares plunge 42% in three days

Mumbai: An independent director of Manpasand Beverages has resigned in the wake of search and seizure proceedings by Commissioner of Central GST and Customs at various premises of the company. “… we would like to inform you that Chirag Doshi, Independent Director of the Company has tendered resignation from the post of Director of the Company with immediate effect i.e. 29 May, 2019. “This resignation is mainly due to a press release issued by GST department,” the company said in a BSE filing. It further said Doshi also confirmed in a mail that there was no other material reasons other than provided in the letter of resignation. Shares of Manpasand Beverages continued to fall on Wednesday, plunging over 42 percent in three days. Some of the company’s officials were taken under judicial custody following a search by the Commissioner of Central GST and Customs. The scrip on Wednesday tumbled 9.94 percent to close at Rs 63.40, its lower circuit limit, on the BSE. [caption id=“attachment_5037401” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Manpasand Beverages products. Screengrab.[/caption] In a BSE filing on Saturday, Manpasand Beverages had said that the Commissioner of Central GST and Customs carried out search and seizure proceedings at various premises of the company on 23 May and the further inquiry was conducted on 24 May at GST Bhavan office of Vadodara. “Abhishek Singh, Whole Time Director, Paresh Thakkar, Chief Financial Officer of the company and Harshvardhan Singh are under judicial custody of authority on 24 May 2019. The company is contesting these allegations in accordance with the due process of law,” it had said in the filing. In a filing on Saturday, the company had said, “We would like to inform you that Vishal Sood, Non-Executive Director of the company has tendered resignation from the post of Director with immediate effect i.e. 24 May, 2019. This resignation is mainly due to search from GST department.” The company’s independent directors Bharat Vyas and Milind Babar, along with director Dhruv Agrawal also tendered their resignation. The company informed the BSE that Vyas resigned due to “pre-occupation”, while resignation of others is “mainly due to GST search”. On Monday, the company also informed the bourses about cancellation of its board meeting, which was scheduled to be held on 28 May, “due to unavoidable circumstances and also due to want of quorum during the board meeting”.