The founder of NMC Specialty Hospital, BR Shetty, has filed a legal suit against the Indian immigration authorities for stopping him boarding a flight to the UAE on November 14 without any reasons whatsoever.
Shetty, as per Reuters, had said last month that he planned to return to the Emirates and denied reports he had fled the country after his hospital group’s implosion. NMC, listed in London and UAE’s biggest hospital group, went into administration in April following months of turmoil over its finances. The company had also disclosed that it had $6.6 billion in debt, more than its earlier estimates.
In the petition against India’s external affairs ministry, the immigration bureau and Foreign Regional Registration Officer (FRRO) Bengaluru, Shetty said he had asked the immigration department as to why he was stopped and for permission to travel abroad but had not heard from them since. Moreover, the petition asked the court to declare the move by the immigration officials as illegal and grant Shetty permission to travel abroad. He added that he urgently needed to go to UAE for personal reasons.
According to WSJ, NMC Health PLC which does business mainly in the Middle East but also in other regions, including the US, was placed into administration by a UK court in April 2020 following the discovery of a hole in its books of more than $3 billion. As such, it had filed for Chapter 15 protection in the US Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del. Chapter 15 is the section of the US Bankruptcy Code that gives foreign companies access to many of the benefits of US bankruptcy law, freezing lawsuits and shielding US-based assets from potential seizure by creditors.
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Founded by Bavaguthu Raghuram Shetty, NMC Health operates a network that includes 38 hospitals and 146 medical centers in 19 countries. Shetty and Emirati billionaire Khaleefa Butti Omar Yousif Ahmed al-Muhairi, formerly NMC’s executive vice chairman, resigned from the company’s board in February. Reuters stated that Bank of Baroda is suing Shetty for backing away from an agreement it says was decided at a March meeting to give the bank 16 properties as collateral for debts and to secure additional guarantees.
However, Shetty brushed off the agreement as a fraudulent document, as per a statement of objection filed to an Indian court.
