Dil Beparwah | ✔

forty four

||CHAPTER 44||
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┊V A R U N┊

𝐃𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐎𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐨𝐢 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐚𝐧 𝐞𝐦𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐨𝐰𝐧? 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐛𝐞𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐈𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐚'𝐬 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐛𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐛𝐚𝐫𝐨𝐧
𝐕𝐚𝐫𝐮𝐧 𝐌𝐚𝐥𝐡𝐨𝐭𝐫𝐚, 𝐄𝐝𝐢𝐭𝐨𝐫  | 𝐁𝐢𝐳𝐍𝐞𝐬𝐭

An old adage follows that behind a successful man, there must be the influence of a woman. To a bearable extent, a young business graduate starting his career during the peak desolation stages of the country's early 90s economy, employed his foreign degree to twist this adage and become India's leading business magnate in the next decade.

Raman Oberoi, Chairman of Oberoi Industries, has been applauded for his steep rise to success numerous times. His father was an engineer, whereas his mother observed an academic career in the 70s, making him a first generation businessman in the family. However, building a strong empire without money or connections is fictitious, and as it turns out, Oberoi's strategic rise to power might turn to quick sand just as fast.

Oberoi landed his first job as an assistant at a notable local agro business, Negi Agro. While a calculative acumen pushed him higher up the rungs, his suave personality seemingly charmed the late Madhur Negi, enough to arrange a marital alliance between his daughter, Jyoti Negi and her lover, Raman Oberoi. The unforeseen death of Negi Agro's CEO stirred a lot of political and corporate havoc, and with the liberalization of trade in the 90s, Madhur Negi's right hand man was forced to step up and take over the business—a business that he has now successfully converted into a multi-crore empire.

Question is, how much of this power transition was forced? This fairy tale of success comes with its own basket of rotten apples. Following the demise of Madhur Negi, the rising business observed a change in ownership and ultimately, a change of staff as well—a brutal cut of Negi's trusted men, including his accountant Harish Tiwari. Manipulation of public focus to his wise moves of diversification of trade and acquisition of several processed food industries suppressed the uproar of protests that had then ensued.

It's not news that Madhur Negi, former CEO of Negi Agro (later bought and renamed by Oberoi Industries), had varied interests. As open as this secret can be, he had been involved in unofficial gambling trades. While this matter was well under covers, an estimated amount of ₹150 Crores had been dispersed in the form nameless transactions.

Clearly, Negi's finance department remained extremely loyal and immaculate at their job. For years, starting from its initiation till the opening of trade gateways in the country, the company showed steady business despite the reality being otherwise. Concerns raised over dwindling company resources were presented with forged reports. However, these reports didn't go amiss by Negi's new assistant, and this discovery is what led to a feral twist in the history of Negi Agro: an unexpected betrayal of trust and loyalty.

Put simply, Raman Oberoi caught hold of documents that provided him leverage to confidences that blew out of proportion. These documents were bond deeds of property transfer (i.e., land, factory, etc) signed under names of people who worked as house help or drivers for Negi's family—ostensible "nameless" contracts, popularly known as the "benami" transactions. It refers to the transactions in which a property is transferred to one person for consideration paid by another person. This practice has been undertaken by many business owners in the past for tax aversion reasons. To prevent this (and to stop its contribution to the black money problem), Prohibition of Benami Property Transaction Act was passed in 1988, thus banning these nameless transactions.