Gujarat: PepsiCo India withdraws lawsuit against two Deesa farmers

Kailash Gehlot, the advocate for the two brothers— Suresh and Fulchand Kachchhawa—said, “The lawsuit slapped had sought Rs 20 lakh in damages. With this withdrawal application, all other orders now stand null and void, including HC’s order for appointing two court commissioners to investigate the premises as well as the cold storages at Banaskantha and Sabarkantha.”

Fulchand and Suresh had been slapped with a lawsuit by PepsiCo India on April 11. Although the court had appointed a court commissioner to investigate the premises of the two brothers, unsatisfied with the partial relief, the company had approached the HC.

The HC had taken cognisance of the company’s arguments and had thereafter had directed the Deesa court to appoint two court commissioners – one, to investigate the two farmers’ premises and cold storage at Banaskantha and a second commissioner to investigate the cold storage at Sabarkantha.

The brothers, residents of Malgadh village in the Deesa taluka of Banaskantha, own nearly 50 acres of land in the district, besides two cold storages. The Kachchhawa family combined own 150 acres of land. They are also on the board of directors in a Deesa-based company potato chips company, Tirupati Balaji Chips Potato, a local ostensible rival of PepsiCo’s Lay’s Chips.