The owner of an industrial house who becomes the toast of the art world by signing a fantastic Rs 100-crore deal with a master painter is caught forging the signatures of his auditors to avail of a Rs 60-lakh home loan. Sounds bizarre? Maybe, but such is the story of Guru Swarup Srivastava, the 52-year-old Chairman of Swarup Group of Industries, which is said to have interests in everything from heavy engineering to pharma to software. Last fortnight, officers from the Economic Offences Wing swooped down on Swarup's Mumbai headquarters and arrested the man, following a complaint from two city-based CAS who've alleged that he forged their signatures on company balance sheets, one of which was used to procure a home loan. Swarup, who shot to fame by commissioning M.F. Hussain to do 125 paintings for Rs 100 crore and cemented it by sponsoring the Filmfare awards last year, was, at various times, a news reporter, an air employee and a chemistry lecturer before he became an "industrialist". Bizarre, then, is an understatement.

Second Going

As possibly the most celebrated hr head in corporate India, Hema Ravichander ran a virtual hr factory at Infosys, screening over a million applications every year and managing a workforce of 36,000. And now for the second time, Ravichander, 44, is quitting Infosys to try her hand at hr consulting. The first time she left in 1996, the tech major experimented with four different replacements, before it managed to get her back. Let's hope Infy doesn't have to pray for her third coming.

Now, A Real Job

Ever since he was ousted from Britannia almost two years ago, Sunil Alagh has been lying low. Sure, he set up a consulting firm (called SKA Advisors) that doled out advice on marketing to, among others, his friend Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw's Biocon, and even headed the All India Management Association. But neither could have offered him the thrill of running a large consumer goods company. Last fortnight, however, promised to bring Alagh, 58, closer to his good old days. While Vijay Mallya didn't make him the CEO of his Kingfisher Airlines as rumoured, he did put him on UB's board as an independent director. That's more starpower to UB's famous parties.

A Matter Of Debt

Luck seems to be running out for Usha Group's Vinay Rai. After months of dilly-dallying, the government has directed the Serious Fraud Investigation Office to probe into three Rai-promoted Usha Group companies. The group is said to owe Rs 4,500 crore to various lenders, with Malvika Steel alone owing Rs 1,038 crore-a distinction that puts it among the top 10 defaulters in the country, as Finance Minister P. Chidambaram told the Rajya Sabha recently. IFCI has even alleged that the group's three companies have diverted funds to 250 associate companies, resulting in a loss of Rs 1,700 crore to the financial institution. Rai, who once counted among the 10 richest Indians and recently authored a book, couldn't be reached for comment.

Out Of The Box

A year after he brought the Onida devil back on television screens, Mirc Electronics' Head of Marketing, Venkatesan Chandramouli, has gone soft. That is, he's quit Mirc (which markets the Onida brand) and is joining Cadbury India as Director of Strategy, Innovations and International Business. "I am just taking a one-day break between the jobs," says he. An alumnus of XLRI, the 37-year-old played a key role in transforming Mirc from a colour TV company to a multi-product marketer, besides relaunching Mirc's famous mascot, the Onida devil. At Cadbury, Chandramouli's key challenge, he says, will be growing the chocolates business. "It's an under-penetrated product," he says. Dentists, rejoice.

Unequal Employer?

Caste is a sensitive issue in India, and you abuse a caste-especially one lower-at your own peril. IDBI's Chairman V.P. Shetty discovered that to his dismay recently. Shetty was technically arrested and released on a Rs 10,000 bail on May 6, for allegedly making casteist remarks against people of scheduled castes. The target of Shetty's alleged remarks was an IDBI executive, B.W. Ramteke, who, he states in his complaint to the police, had gone to Shetty's cabin to discuss the backlog in SC/ST recruitment. However, a two-judge bench that heard the matter ordered the fir quashed, since the alleged remarks were made inside Shetty's cabin and not in public. The only winner in this unseemly controversy may be the backlogged applicants.

-Contributed by Priya Srinivasan, Rahul Sachitanand, Kumarkaushalam, Amanpreet Singh
and Roshni Jayakar