Legal Era Nov 2017 | Page 83

Highlights $4.5BN LOAN DEAL SIGNED BETWEEN BANGLADESH AND INDIA Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority. Bangladesh will use the funds for 17 priority infrastructure projects, which include electricity, railways, roads, shipping and ports. As with previous line of credit (LoC) agreements, Bangladesh will pay an interest rate of 1% a year for 20 years, with a grace of 5 years as agreed. Mr. Jaitley said Bangladesh had developed significantly on the socio-economic front in the past seven years. “We have stood by Bangladesh’s attempts to develop and we will do so in the future. This significant agreement is a continuation of that effort.” On October 4, a $4.5-billion loan deal was signed between Bangladesh and India for developing its infrastructure, health and education. It was in the presence of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and his Bangladesh counterpart, A.M.A. Muhith, by Bangladeshi Economic Relations Division Secretary Kazi Shofiqul Azam and Managing Director of the Export-Import Bank of India David Rasquinha that this agreement was signed. Mr. Jaitley said 17 development projects had been recognized under the deal. About $500 million will be used for setting up new economic zones for Indian and other investors as per Indian Finance Ministry officials and the Mr. Muhith said Bangladesh and India have “excellent relations at the moment”. “They stood by us during our independence struggle. We hope they will continue to do so in the future.” The $4.5bn deal was announced in April, whilst Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s visit to India. Mr. Jaitley’s trip to Bangladesh was used to finalize the agreement. Under the agreement, Bangladesh will have to purchase 65% to 75% of the services, goods or works from the Indian market with the money to be provided under the new LoC following the precedence of the previous two nearly identical agreements. QUICKDEL LOGISTICS SLAPS `300-CRORE LEGAL NOTICE ON SNAPDEAL A `300 crore legal notice has been sent to Snapdeal founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal, and Jasper Infotech, the entity which runs Snapdeal by Quickdel Logistics, the parent of GoJavas that had raised investment from Snapdeal. Anand Rai, who had acquired Snapdeal’s stake in GoJavas and merged it with his Pigeon Express stated that Snapdeal stopped doing business with GoJavas for the benefit of Vulcan and “stole” confidential business information such as data on employees and service vendors. Snapdeal held 49% stake in GoJavas and the founders of the company had sold it to Rai in a fire sale. “I’ve sent them a legal notice worth `300 crore for criminal breach of trust against GoJavas which resulted in erosion of value of Quickdel,” Rai said. (FIR) with the Delhi Police against former promoters and directors of Quickdel - Praveen Sinha, Randhir Singh, Ashish Chaudhary and Abhijeet Singh followed with Quickdel’s notice. The notice alleges the founders and the company of criminal breach of trust and siphoning off money from GoJavas to Vulcan Express, the in-house logistics firm of Snapdeal. Jasper Infotech filed a first information report When contacted, a Snapdeal spokesperson termed Quickdel’s allegations of cheating, forgery, criminal breach of trust, conspiracy and criminal misappropriation of funds as baseless. www . legaleraonline . com | L egal E ra | N ovember 2017 83