Multiple DIN numbers by Priyanka and Karti – Did Registrar of Companies act on it?

[dropcap color=”#008040″ boxed=”yes” boxed_radius=”8px” class=”” id=””]T[/dropcap]wo years ago Sonia Gandhi’s daughter Priyanka Vadra admitted  to holding multiple Director Identification Numbers (DIN) to Corporate Affairs Ministry. As per the Companies Act, a Director can hold only one DIN similar to having a passport or PAN card or Aadhar number. Holding multiple DINs would attract a minimum fine of ₹50,000 and six months jail term. The fine may increase depending on the duration of holding the illegal DINs.

That Priyanka and Karti had multiple DINs came to light after Senior BJP leader Subramanian Swamy filed a complaint against her for holding multiple DINs. Seeing red, she admitted her mistake and sought the Corporate Affairs Ministry for condoning. Her claim it was “unintentional and inadvertent mistake.”  This was revealed in a letter the Secretary of the Ministry wrote to Swamy on May 16, 2014 (the day the Lok Sabha results were announced). The Link : http://www.dailypioneer.com/todays-newspaper/govt-lets-off-priyanka-who-admits-mistake-over-dins.html.  A copy of the letter is posted at the end of this post.

Swamy had complained against Priyanka and former Finance Minister P Chidambaram’s son Karti for holding multiple DINs. Karti was holding six DINs and the Ministry said actions against the Karti was going to be initiated. Karti was given 15 days to respond, after which further action was going to be initiated.

As far as we know, there has been no update on both these events and we would appreciate the latest status on the same from the Ministry of Corporate Affairs.

[dropcap color=”#008040″ boxed=”yes” boxed_radius=”8px” class=”” id=””]P[/dropcap]riyanka is not new to company formation affairs.  Her first company was with her husband Vadra in November 2007.  As mentioned in one of our previous posts, both were first Directors of a company called Blue Breeze Trading Private Limited. But in July 2008 she exited from Blue Breeze, which engaged in flight chartering. Link: http://www.business-standard.com/article/companies/kochi-based-sreenivasan-replaced-priyanka-in-robert-vadra-company-112100700040_1.html

She was also a Director in another company Backops Services Private Limited. She was taking over the shares and Directorship from her brother Rahul Gandhi in 2009 and with lightning speed the Ministry of Corporate Affairs allowed the company to wind up. Priyanka is also holding more than 2,50,000 shares in the controversial Associated Journal Limited, the publisher of defunct the National Herald Newspaper. These shares were earlier held by Rahul Gandhi. He had more than three lakh shares and handed over around 2,50,000 shares (2,62,411 to be exact) to his sister.


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1. Text in Blue points to additional data on the topic.