Mumbai | Acclaimed art director Nitin Chandrakant Desai criticised a financial services firm to which his company owed money in one of the voice notes found after his alleged suicide, police said on Thursday.
He also purportedly said that he had walked a long road, and could not go any further.
Raigad police in Maharashtra, who are investigating the suicide, found 11 audio clips in a voice recorder found at Desai's office, an official said.
In one of these clips or voice notes, he is heard stating that his company
could not come out of the financial crisis it was facing because of the procedure adopted by the financial services firm.
The voice notes were of duration ranging from four minutes to 20 minutes, and in some of them Desai narrated his life story, the official said.
Police are likely to call the officials of the financial services firm mentioned in the note for enquiry, he said.
Desai's company had defaulted on a Rs 252 crore loan repayment to creditors and the Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal had initiated insolvency proceedings against it.
In another voice note Desai appealed to the government to take over his Karjat studio to provide a platform to artists and budding talent.
He had faced many ups and downs in life and walked a long road, and it was not possible for him to go a few more steps further from this point, that was why he was stopping here, Desai purportedly said in one note.
The art director who had designed the sets of films such as "Lagaan" and "Jodhaa Akbar” and the popular TV quiz show “Kaun Banega Crorepati” was found dead on the premises of his N D Studios at Karjat in Raigad district on Wednesday morning.
The autopsy report said that death was due to hanging, said Somnath Gharge, Raigad superintendent of police.
Mumbai | Edelweiss Asset Reconstruction Company on Thursday promised full cooperation with authorities investigating the death of noted art director Nitin Desai.
The financial services company, which had successfully initiated insolvency proceedings against Desai's company ND Art World just last week, said it is committed to the legal process.
"We are committed to fully cooperating with all the relevant authorities. Our commitment to transparency, cooperation, and adherence to the legal process remains steadfast," it said in a statement.
The company communication came hours after Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis announced a probe into the role of the creditors after ruling BJP's lawmaker Ashish Shelar named EARC and the group's chairman Rashesh Shah.
ND's Art World Pvt Ltd had borrowed Rs 185 crore through two loans from ECL Finance, an arm of the Edelweiss Group, in 2016 and 2018, and troubles with repayments started in January 2020.
The outstanding dues went up to Rs 252 crore including accrued interest by June 2022. The account was transferred to another asset reconstruction company before it got transferred to EARC.
In its late evening statement, EARC listed the chronology of events in the case and added that Desai was not able to get any relief from even the National Companies Appellate Tribunal as well, which rejected ND's Art World's appeal on August 1.
