Sicom directors on UWB walk out of board meet

Sanjay Jog

Mumbai, Nov 27: The Mumbai-based development bank Sicom Ltd’s nominee directors, AKD Jadhav and Sharad Upasani, on Tuesday walked out of the meeting of board of directors of United Western Bank (UWB) objecting to what they said was an attempt on the part of its managing director and others to mislead the board in respect of a Rs 2.35-crore write-off under the Esop (employee stock option) scheme.

Sources involved with the meeting told The Financial Express that Sicom nominee directors were furious over the UWB’s attempt to show in the presence of its auditor that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had directed to write-off the loss on that account. However, the two said that RBI had only directed that the Trust should dispose of this illegally acquired shares. RBI is believed to have fined the UWB Rs 5 lakh in this regard.

Sources said a UWB board note presented revealed that the entire board had approved the write-off. However, Sicom nominee directors are believed to have pointed out that the write-off was only before one of the management committees and there was no independent approval of the board for the write-off.