Kishore Biyani, founder of the Future Group has challenged the forensic audit process and the report submitted by accounting firm BDO India LLP and its lender Bank of India at the Bombay High Court.
On Monday, Future Retail said in the stock exchange announcement that Biyani has filed a writ petition against the company, its forensic auditor BDO India and its lender Bank of India.
Biyani approached the court through the law firm Naik Naik & Co on September 15 and the division bench of Justice Sunil B. Shukre and Justice Firdosh Phiroze Pooniwalla will hear the matter on October 31.
The development comes after Future Retail’s lender Bank of India last month asked the distressed company as well as its promoters Kishore Biyani and Rakesh Biyani to submit their response on a forensic audit report.
The lender had appointed BDO India as the forensic auditor to conduct the forensic audit of Future Retail’s account. The company had availed various credit facilities that became the Non-Performing Asset (NPA) on 31 January 2022.
Last year in July, the Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) admitted Future Retail Ltd (FRL) under the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) in an application filed by its lender Bank of India.
The state-owned lender Bank of India had filed an application to admit the company following the Rs 3,495 crore default on the one-time restructuring scheme between the bank and the company. Currently, the company has admitted claims of over Rs 19,185 crore.
When the company was admitted under the CIRP, its assets included 620 stores, among them 30 Big Bazaar hypermarkets and 350 smaller-format outlets.
