CITCO defaulters in the soup

Ramkrishan Upadhyay
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, September 22

Two biggest defaulters of CITCO are in the soup. The court has declared one of them a proclaimed offender, while a warrant of arrest has been issued against the other.

CITCO has started the process to auction high-end cars of the defaulters in its custody by moving an application in the court for attachment.

The two guests, Ashwani Kumar Chopra and Ramnik Bansal, stayed in Hotel Shivalikview last year for months without paying bills amounting to Rs 18 lakh. When the guests did not pay the bills, the CITCO authorities filed a complaint against them with the police and took their Audi and Chevrolet Cruze cars into their custody.

The authorities tried their best to recover the dues through talks, but when all efforts failed, they filed a case in the court. CITCO had filed two cases. A criminal case was filed after cheques given by the accused were dishonoured. Another civil case was filed to recover the pending amount.

Umang Bansal, law officer, CITCO, confirmed that the District Courts, Chandigarh, declared Chopra a PO in the cheque-bounce case, while an arrest warrant had been issued against the other accused, Ramnik Bansal, in the same case.

An Audi and a Chevrolet Cruze of the defaulters have been lying in front of Shivalikview for around a year. A CITCO official said with the passage of time, the value of the cars would gradually reduce. Due to this, CITCO wanted the cars to be auctioned early.

Any further delay in the auction would further depreciate their value. Both Bansal and Chopra stayed in the hotel for months. While initially they paid the bills, later they stopped making the payment. Chopra gave three cheques to the hotel, each for Rs 6 lakh, on September 25, 26 and 27. However, all cheques were dishonoured. CITCO has failed to establish contact with the defaulters so far. A public notice was issued when the defaulters failed to appear before the court. Umang Bansal said CITCO would take all legal measures to recover the pending amount.