ABG-LDA led cargo handler HBT is now facing a criminal conspiracy suit for allegedly conspiring to pull out from Haldia Dock Complex.

Kolkata Port Trust (KopT) said HBT is liable to pay penalty because it has violated the agreement with the port trust. It may be noted here that HBT on Wednesday sent a formal notice to the port authorities declaring its decision to pull out from the dock complex with immediate effect.

Manish Jain, chairman of KoPT, warned, "We will not allow the ABG-LDA group to uninstall its equipment and shift from Haldia."

Jain added alleged that the contractor hasn't abided by the directives of the Calcutta High Court issued on October 12 and 19, following the contractor's first notice of stopping its operations at Haldia Dock Complex.

But, HBT's parent firm ABG-LDA claims that it took decision to pull out from the dock complex as the state administration failed to provide it the security required to keep on operating.

Earlier this week, HBT Chief Executive Gurpreet Malhi said the company deposited Rs 17.5 lakh with the district administration for deployment of police, but the police failed to prevent the incident of abduction of its officials and some of their family members by criminals.

But Jain defended the port administration saying police personnel were deployed at HBT's berths but there was no one to coordinate with the police from the contractor's part.