The Supreme Court has dismissed an appeal filed by Congress member of parliament Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury who challenged the disinvestment of Metro Dairy Ltd by the Bengal government.

A bench comprising Justice M.R. Shah and Justice Krishna Murari, the apex court held on Friday that the High Court of Calcutta was justified in dismissing the PIL filed by Choudhury.

A division bench of Justice Prakash Shrivatsava and Justice Rajarshi Bhardwaj of HC had by its order dated June 13, 2022 had dismissed the PIL filed by Choudhury, who moved SC challenging the lower court judgment.

It had been alleged that there was lack of transparency in the Bengal government's sale of its 47 percent stake in Metro Dairy to a private organisation Keventer Agro Ltd in 2017. Keventer bought the shares for Rs 85 crore in an electronic auction conducted by the state.

In the same year, after the disinvestment took place, a Singapore- based private equity fund Mandala Capital also invested in the shares of Keventer Agro Limited. It picked up a 15 per cent stake in Keventer for Rs 115 crore. Keventer has multiple lines of business apart from the dairy business of Metro.

Linking the two apparently unrelated yet back to back transactions, Chowdhury had alleged that the government, which set up the Metro Dairy with public money had suffered a loss of at least Rs 500 crore by selling its stake to Keventer at a low price. Accordingly, he had contended that a probe must be initiated into the alleged scam.

On Friday, Chowdhury continued to remain defiant despite the setback. “Yes, my appeal has been dismissed. May be I have not been able to bring about the facts of the case before the court fully. However, I am sure there was some malpractice and I will consult with my lawyers what can be done next,” he told this newspaper in the evening.

Mayank Jalan, chairman and managing director of Keventer Agro, tweeted in the evening after the judgement: “Truth is generally the best vindication against slander.”

Commenting on the development, Commenting on this development, Debanjan Mandal, managing partner, Fox & Mandal, representing Keventer Agro said, “This vindicates the stand of Keventer Agro Ltd., that the policy decision called for no interference, the valuation of shares of Metro Dairy was proper, the process followed by the Government was completely transparent and fair and the price offered by Keventer Agro for purchase of the shares was also adequate. The petitioner had also asked for a CBI inquiry which has as a consequence of this dismissal been rejected.”