HBT now faces conspiracy suit

KOPT says Cargo handling firm violated agreement as well as High Court directives.

Kolkata Port Trust (KopT) is contemplating a criminal conspiracy suit against ABG-LDA led HBT, which gave a formal notice to the port authorities on Wednesday about its decision to pull out from Haldia Dock Complex with immediate effect.

Manish Jain, the chairman of KoPT, said the contractor has violated the agreement and is liable to pay penalty. "We will not allow the ABG-LDA group to uninstall its equipment and shift from Haldia," Jain said.

He said the contractor first gave notice of stalling its operations at the berths, which handles cargo of industrial majors like Tata Steel and SAIL, on August 23. Thereafter the Calcutta High Court intervened and issued two directives on October 12 and 19. "The ABG has not abided by the directives of the High Court and has violated the terms of agreement. This issue will be raised on the November 2 hearing at the High Court," Jain said.

The controversy centres around who is liable to pay the penalty since ABG claims that it had to pull out since the state had not provided it the security for operations and there were life threats on its officers.

Jain defended that the port authorities had moved the court asking security for ABG but when police was deployed at the berths there was no one to coordinate with the administration from ABG's part. It had even written letters to the state chief secretary to provide security.

CEO of ABG Gurpreet Malhi said the company intended to operate and deposited Rs 17.5 lakh with the East Midnapore district administration for deployment of police. But the incident of abduction prompted them to take the decision of pulling out of Haldia. He, however, didn't comment on KoPT's denial to accept termination of agreement.

... contd.

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