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PANJIM: Salgaocar, one of Goa’s major business houses which made it big mainly through mining, is seeing a court battle between two brothers over partitioning the group's assets after one brother accused the other of not honouring an agreement.
Shivanand Salgaocar, and Dattaraj Salgaocar of V M Salgaocar Group that was founded by late Vasudev Salgaocar in 1950s made its fortunes through mining.
Later they diversified into shipping, real estate, hospitality, agriculture, media and healthcare. According to its website it is one of the leading Indian suppliers of processed iron ore to NSC and POSCO as well as other steel mills in China, Romania, and the Middle East.
Shivanand and seven others have filed a suit in the Bombay High Court against Dattaraj and 30 others for partition and asking for directions.
The next date of the suit which is still in preadmission stage is October 17.
According the ET, the suit filed by Shivanand alleges that the family of Dattaraj Salgaocar had walked out of the agreement, claiming that the agreement was "tax evasive".
Mumbai-based law firm Dastur Dadhich & Kalambi is representing Shivanand while Dattaraj is being represented by - Gagrat & Company and Federal & Rashmikant.
Both brothers have told media that they had no comments to offer as the matter is subjudice. According to media reports the crux of the dispute is the memorandum of understanding between the two groups that was reached in October 2009 to divide the family businesses and business assets and properties into the mining business and hotel business referred in the petition as 'business baskets'. The group also runs Salgaocar Football team as well as has several trusts that run schools, colleges, and a hospital.
Dattaraj is married to Dipti, the sister of the Ambani brothers.