Bengal may bid for liquidated Dunlop India

Venerable tyre-maker Dunlop India's existence in India may continue despite all odds as the West Bengal government suggested today that it may take over the ailing company after the Kolkata High Court ordered its liquidation.

"After studying legal aspects, the state government may participate in the bidding process to acquire Dunlop India. This will be keeping in mind the workers' security," labour minister Purnendu Basu of the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress government said.

Under an order passed by the high court on Thursday, a liquidator appointed by the high court will take control of the assets and account books of the 87-year-old company, which set up its first factory at Sahaganj in Hooghly district in 1926.

A single-judge bench of Justice Sanjib Banerjee held the Pawan Kumar Ruia-promoted company's management responsible for its present fate – Dunlop India owes over Rs1,000 crore to creditors, who have been filing wind-up petitions since 2008 to realize their dues.

Justice Banerjee held that the firm had sold assets worth Rs2,300 crore in a fraudulent way and was unable to show any prospects to carry out business in the near future.

Sources in the management said the company may appeal against the order before a division bench. But a bulk of the 750-odd employees of the Sahaganj unit welcomed the verdict because it paves the way for their statutory dues to be cleared. Most of them are due to retire by 2015 and didn't anyway expect a future with the ailing company.