There is a twist in the tale: the little brother is stepping in to bail out his debt-laden elder sibling.

Jawahar Lal Goel, the promoter and managing director of Dish TV India Ltd, has offered a sizeable part of his shares in the direct-to-home (DTH) firm as security for credit facilities availed by elder brother Subhash Chandra.

The office of Subhash Chandra, chairman of the Essel group, put out a statement on Thursday disclosing the development even as it sought to scotch rumours that the pledged shares being released from the lenders at a lower price were being sold “to third party investors at higher price points”.

“These speculations are baseless and incorrect, and the group has no such intentions whatsoever,” the statement said, adding that Jawahar Goel had stepped forward to offer support and faced “no financial stress whatsoever in his personal capacity”.

The statement said Jawahar Goel was the rightful owner of the Dish TV shares and elder brother Subhash was not the promoter of the DTH entity and did not exercise any management control over the entity.

Shares of Dish TV India on Thursday closed 6.34 per cent higher at Rs 9.39 on the BSE.

The promoters’ stake in Dish TV stood at 7.30 per cent, comprising 13,44,84,207 shares as on March 31. Of this, 6,87,88,845 shares, or 51.15 per cent of their holding, were pledged.

The press statement did not disclose how much of the promoter’s stake now stands pledged or the amount of credit facilities availed by the Subhash Chandra group. The statement added that the Subhash Chandra group was fully committed to returning the security cover to Jawahar Goel and his family.