Film star Dharmendra’s mega restaurant called Some Place
Else at Mumbai’s Fun Republic Complex (Andheri West), has suddenly
landed in the middle of a huge controversy.
The furore is over
the fact that many suppliers and staff at the restaurant launched on
the actor’s 70th birthday and now called BJN Banquets, have not been
paid dues of over Rs 60 lakh since over a year.
According to
the complainants, the person behind the sorry state of affairs is Sunil
Hingorani, husband of yesteryear actress Anita Raaj and director of
Fusion Cuisines Private Limited (FCPL), the company he set up with
Dharmendra, Amin Merchant and Niranjan Thakur (Manu Chabbria’s
brother-in-law).
(Left)
Angry at not getting any response from Sunil Hingorani, the staff and
workers of Some Place Else landed at his wife Anita Raaj’s optical
showroom at Bandra. (right) The staff and workers filing an NC at
Bandra police station
After Some Place Else began running huge losses, the partners
handed it over to the BJN group, which owns restaurants like Firangi
Paani and Angeethi to run on a sub-conducting basis.
Shankar who
was in-charge of house-keeping at Some Place Else, said, “FCPL has to
pay me more than a lakh. We have been running from pillar to post for
our money. We used to deal only with Sunil and he later told us that he
had sold his shares to BJN and that we should take our money from them.
Some of us approached BJN but to no avail.”
Another complainant,
Rathod who built the hub and whom FCPL owes Rs 40 lakh, said, “Sunil
gave us letters telling us to go to BJN. That did not help. We are
still screaming for our money.”
Prakash Nichani of BJN told, “I am not supposed to pay FCPL’s liabilities. When
I
took up this place on sub-conducting basis, I had agreed to pay dues of
up to a maximum of Rs 10 lakh. But later, I realised that the situation
was very different. The complainants should settle it with FCPL.”
According
to the complainants, Sunil has been saying that he has sold his shares
to BJN group and is not associated with Some Place Else any longer.
However, Merchant said, “Sunil cannot sell off his shares to BJN. It’s
a private limited company and he is not authorised to do that.”
Merchant
said, “I was informed on February 3 by Sunil that he had sold off his
share in FCPL to BJN Hotels. I immediately sent an email to Nichani
informing him that there had been no resolution passed by FCPL to allow
Sunil to sell his stake and that he continues to be a shareholder and
director at FCPL.”
Merchant added, “Sunil was extremely
careless and chose to concentrate on other F&B outlets which have
either closed down or been discontinued and hence FCPL’s business
suffered.”
On Monday afternoon, the workers and suppliers
marched to Sunil’s optical showroom Payless Optics in Bandra (run by
Anita Raaj) and demanded to meet Sunil. Seeing so many people at her
shop, Anita called the police.
Later, Sunil was called to
Bandra (West) police station for an explanation and lodged a
non-cognizable complaint against the complainants. They in turn filed a
counter complainant. Raj Gaekwad, one of the complainants whose
outstanding payment is Rs 5.55 lakh, said, “We have lodged a counter
NC. In a day or two we will appoint a lawyer and file an FIR.”
Meanwhile,
Sunil said, “I don’t want to talk about this but if you insist let me
tell you that I am in the process of moving out of FCPL. It will either
be FCPL themselves or whoever buys FCPL who will settle the dues. I
know these people have not been paid but since they have been harassing
me, I have filed an NC.”
What is owed
• Shah Suppliers: 14,000
• Sai enterprises Pest Control: 20,000
• Piyarji Milk: 2,00,000
• Sanjay Electrician:5,85,000
• Lopa Sharma: 96,000
• Girish ModakDarshan Diary: 1,71,566
• Tushar Civil Construction Raju Rathod: 40,00,000
• Ambika Sales: 5,55,000
• Shankar: 1,10,000
• Sparkle Glass: 3,00,000
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