In the public notice published on August 15, Kanga and Company, the advocates for Bennett Coleman and Company, has asked the defendants (C R Bhansali) to appear in person in the Mumbai High Court within ten days. ``...upon you in default whereof the plaintiff will be entitled at any time after the expiration of such ten days to obtain a decree for any sum of Rs 13.24 crore and a sum of Rs 13.24 crore for costs, together with such interest if any, as the court may order,'' the notice said.

Bennett Coleman & Company, publishers of The Times of India, last year filed suits against C R Bhansali, owner of CRB Capital Markets, CRB Share Broking Ltd and Shree Bhikshu Foundation Ltd to recover the amount fromthe defunct group. The suits (No 3692 and 3760 of 1997) were filed by Kanga and Co on its behalf in the Mumbai High Court to recover Rs 13.24 crore with further interest on the principal sum of Rs 11.60 crore at the rate of 30 per cent per annum from the date of filing the suit till payment or realisation. A senior lawyer with Kanga and Co refused to comment. ``I'll have to talk to my client before giving details,'' he said.

The CRB group besides duping thousands of small investors also borrowed heavily from the inter-corporate deposit market offering unbelievably high interest rates. Now the company's total assets estimated to be around Rs 180 crore far exceeded the liabilities estimated to be around Rs 600 crore.The CRB group is under liquidation following a CBI petition filed for duping the State Bank of India to the tune of Rs 50 crore by misusing the at-par facility offered by the bank. According to another case, the Bank of Baroda too was duped to the tune of Rs 2.5 crore and legal proceedings inthese cases are on. There is also the case filed by the Investor Grievances Forum of Kirit Somaiya and others against CRB.

Now that the official liquidator appointed for CRB by the Delhi High Court is assessing the claims against the company, each of the company's creditors will come forward with claims and counter claims so that the liquidator takes into account their cases too.

Meanwhile, thousands of ordinary depositors are awaiting the liquidator's final move to assess the assets and liabilities of the company. As its secured creditors will get priority over unsecuredcreditors, small investors may not get anything as the claims on the group far exceed its assets. The investors group which championed the cause of small investors initially is not showing the same enthusiasm about their fate now. Even the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is now reversing some of its restrictions on NBFCs. CRB Capital Market was one of the top NBFCs in India which raised a lot of money with the help of a triple A creditrating from CARE, a bank licence from the Reserve Bank of India and high rate of interest.