While the junior Ghosh has been trying to raise some money so that the 1,750 employees, unpaid for 10 months, could be given some relief, the senior Ghosh, who has not visited the company's biggest works here for about a year now, has allegedly been trying to scuttle all such efforts.

Mr P Ghosh had been appointed by the Hong Kong-based Leader Universal that has a 51.16 per cent stake in the company, but he has switched allegiance to the Kolkata-based businessman, Mr SP Arya, who claims to have bought out the Leader stake in Incab. Mr Arya recently told the Calcutta High Court that he had paid Rs 42 crore in cash to Leader Universal (Hong Kong) Co Ltd.

Mr AK Ghosh has been asked by Incab chairman Dato N Sadasivan to run the company's biggest unit here, but Mr AK Ghosh is finding it increasingly difficult to do so without funds.

A letter written recently to Mr P Ghosh by Mr AK Ghosh reads: "Repeated SOS messages from Jamshedpur works to you as wholetime director did not elicit a single response. Even our message to you for help for purchase of diesel oil to ensure continuance of drinking water supply to the township (since Telco disconnected power) fell on your deaf ears."

In order to tide over the grim situation, the management team at Jamshedpur has been trying to sell accumulated non-moving finished cables to prospective customers at a nominal discount. There are assets that do not fall under the purview of the BIFR order dated December 6, 2000. The BIFR wants a three-member committee formed "for disposal of scrap available at Jamshedpur, which also includes machinery reduced to junk". To make things worse for Jamshedpur, Mr P Ghosh had on January 2 written a letter to the assistant commissioner, Central Excise, division II here, accusing Mr AK Ghosh of selling six XLPE insulated power cables without authorisation from the management.

The general manager, when visited by the superintendent (preventive) division II, Central Excise, explained to him the situation and also told him that the Incab board of directors had lost confidence in Mr P Ghosh as recorded in the minutes of the 603rd board meeting held on December 4, 2000.

The excise department has since issued summons to Mr P Ghosh to explain his conduct. The director, who attends duties at the head office as well as court hearings, has recently pleaded with the department that he has been suffering from ill health and, therefore, needs at least two weeks' time to respond to the summons. The director last Monday refused to meet a delegation of around 50 housewives of Incab employees from Jamshedpur.

"Mr Ghosh did not meet us during our morning to evening dharna at the head office. He asked the Hare Street police station to take action against us," a member of the delegation said. The women later met leftist trade union leader Gurudas Dasgupta who has asked them to meet him again so that he could take up the issue properly.

"The wholetime director, as a last ditch effort to cut off all financial lifelines to the Jamshedpur unit, has been manipulating a BIFR order that only speaks of `disposal of scrap available at Jamshedpur' which also includes machinery reduced to junk," the general manager told the The Financial Express.