TOI Correspondent from London: The first time the East India Company (EIC) was formally dissolved was in 1874, as result of the 1857 First War of Independence when Indian soldiers from the company revolted. It was effectively abolished in 1858 when its control of India was transferred to the British Raj operating from a new India Office in Whitehall and its forces became the British Indian Army. For a second time, the EIC in London, surprisingly revived by a Mumbai businessman, is being wound up. It has gone into voluntary liquidation owing £1 million.
Filings at Companies House show that it owes £611,279 (Rs 7.5 crore) to its parent company, the EIC Group, in the British Virgin Islands; £163,105 (Rs 2 crore) in wages to staff and £193,789 (Rs 2.4 crore) to the UK taxman. Its assets amount to just £60.39 (Rs 7,439.)
