Raffles Education files bankruptcy applications against defendants in India Educomp case
Wong Pei Ting
RAFFLES Education has lodged bankruptcy applications against Indian edtech businessman Shantanu Prakash and Singapore lawyer Dennis Lui, after they failed to pay the group over S$3.4 million awarded by the High Court.
The plaintiffs in that High Court case were the Singapore-listed private education provider’s wholly-owned subsidiary Raffles Education Investment India (REI), and India-incorporated Raffles Design International India (RDI).
Prakash is the founder and controller of the Educomp group of companies. The group include India-listed Educomp Solutions, of which Prakash is chairman and managing director, as well as wholly-owned subsidiaries Educomp Asia Pacific and Educomp Professional Education.
Lui was a director of Educomp Asia Pacific from June 2009 to December 2016.
An Apr 6 judgment found Prakash and Lui to be jointly and severally liable to REI for S$221,080, and to REI and RDI for 163.2 million Indian rupees (S$2.65 million).
The High Court had additionally ordered on May 5 that they are liable for the group’s costs and disbursements totalling some S$507,720, subject to any refund of court fees that the group may obtain from the court.
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That case was over claims that Prakash and Lui had devised a plan to mislead the group into believing that Educomp would agree to a buyout of its stake in a joint venture when it had no such intention.
On Monday (Jun 12), Raffles Education said it made bankruptcy applications against Prakash on that day, and against Lui on May 31.
The company noted that the two had on Jun 1 filed appeals against the High Court’s decisions of Apr 6 and May 5.
But the group added that there is no court order granted, to date, for the stay of enforcement or execution of proceedings in respect of the court decisions pending the appeal.
Raffles Education did not record any trades on Monday. It closed at its last price of S$0.055.
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