Fault lines of the Kapur family feud date back to 2017

The recent passing of Sanjay Kapur, chairperson of Delhi-based Sona Comstar, has stirred not just grief but also deep rifts within the family.

- Ayaan Kartik & Nehal Chaliawala

At the heart of the dispute is the company's promoter entity Aureus Investment Pvt. Ltd and a gradual yet consequential shift in ownership and control of Sona Comstar, the country's eighth-largest auto component maker.

The genesis of the current tensions appears to be a chain of events in the 2017-2019 period, when the family's matriarch and Sanjay's mother, Rani Kapur, left the board of promoter firm Aureus and transferred her shareholding to a trust named RK Family Trust.

Aureus holds nearly 28.02% stake in Sona Comstar, currently worth around ₹8,000 crore, and represents the interests of the Kapur family on its board through one nominee director. Sona Comstar is listed on the BSE and NSE as Sona BLW Precision Forgings Ltd.

There was a gradual transfer of ownership and power at Aureus in the two-year period mentioned above, following the wedding of Sunjay Kapur to Priya Sachdev in April 2017, according to Mint's review of publicly available filings of Aureus.

It is unclear what caused the ownership and control transfer and whether it was part of a planned succession.

Queries to Rani Kapur, Priya Kapur, and Sona Comstar to the effect went unanswered.

In response to Mint's queries, an Aureus spokesperson said that the settlement of the shares into the trust was done of Rani Kapur's own volition in 2017, as part of a well-thought -out plan for the revival of the business as well as to ensure a smooth family succession.