Ponty Chadha’s Was Worth Rs. 6,000 crores. Who Gets The Money Now?

Ponty Chadha was indeed a master businessman operating under the name of the “Wave Group”. The total turnover of the Wave Group is over Rs. 6,000 crores. He made money from legal and (possibly) illicit means. But the hallmark of his business acumen was the extent of well diversified businesses that he invested in.

Ponty Chadha’s main source of income was the wholesale liquor trade business in Uttar Pradesh. He had a stranglehold over that business with over 4,000 liquor shops.

Ponty Chadha’s second source of income was from the sugar mills. In a master stroke, he got the U.P. government to sell him 5 sugar mills for a paltry Rs. 206 crores while their value was over Rs. 2,000 crores. The CAG did notice it and raised a hue and cry but who cares about what the CAG says or does.

Hopefully, the then Chief Minister Miss Mayawati would have got a part of Ponty Chadha’s gains from the sale of the sugar mills. She is also worth several hundreds of crores, in her own right.

Ponty Chadha’s third source of income was in acting as a bottler for Pepsi/ Coke. This was easy money because the orders just flowed in without any effort.

Ponty Chadha also had a big stake in realty. He owned malls (such as Centrestage Mall in Noida), nighclubs (such as ‘Elevate’ in Noida) and was also developing a 4500 acre integrated township in UP. The township would have been worth thousands of crores. He had put up details of his holdings in wikipedia.

Ponty Chadha also had a fascination for films. His undertaking was called wavecinemas.com and produced super-duper hits like “Chuoke Chupke” and “Jo Bole So Nihaal”.

So, Ponty Chadha was a brilliant businessman and did have a well diversified portfolio of businesses. He ran them well and made a lot of money.

Ponty Chadha got into trouble in February 2012 when the Income-tax department raided him and found Rs. 125 crores in unaccounted cash. However, Rs. 125 crore was just petty cash for Ponty Chadha and not even a flea bite.

In the end, this controversial and possibly corrupt businessman met a sorry end. He and his brother Hardeep Singh Chadha were having a old property dispute. They met at Ponty Chadha’s farmhouse to resolve the dispute. The negotiations went haywire and Hardeep pulled out his gun and fired at Ponty while Ponty pulled out his gun and fired at Hardeep. The result: Both Ponty and Hardeep died.

So, now the million dollar question is: Who gets to take home the loot of Rs. 6000 crores?