Birlas file criminal case against Lodha

The Priyamvada Birla will case took a new turn today, with the Birlas filing a criminal case against Rajendra S Lodha, alleging that he was trying to convert some of the group's trust property in his own name for personal gain.

The chief judicial magistrate, 24-Parganas (south), West Bengal, issued summons to Lodha and three others for misappropriation of the MP Birla trust fund worth over Rs 2,400 crore. The court also showcaused Lodha as to why a search warrant should not be issued against him and the other accused.

Responding to a petition filed by Rajendra Prasad Pansari, who claims to be the honorary secretary of three charitable institutions set up by MP Birla and his wife Priyamvada, magistrate Mohammad Mumtaz Khan, asked Lodha and the others to appear before the court on November 29.

Ram Jethmalani and Mahesh Jethmalani, counsel for the complainant and petitioner, requested a search warrant against Lodha and the others on the ground that the accused had created a false will in the name of Priyamvada.

They said Lodha had attempted to take over all the assets and properties of the MP Birla estate for his personal benefit, when all the properties and assets had been vested in a public charity.

The counsel alleged that in the probate petition filed in the Calcutta High Court, Lodha suppressed these facts and did not allow the Birlas to inspect documents relating to the trusts.

Jethmalani said unless a general search warrant was issued, the accused would not produce those documents.

The magistrate, however, refused to issue a search warrant against Lodha and the three others, SN Prosad, V Gourishankar and SK Daga.

In his order, Khan observed: "This court has no reason to believe the accused will not produce the document if they are summoned or ordered to produce the same."

Pansari said that Lodha and his associates fraudulently revoked the five trusts constituted by MP Birla and Priyamvada. He said all the accused were trustees of the trust constituted by MP Birla and his wife some time back in 1988 to transfer all the assets to public charity through three charitable institutions.

Pansari alleged that Lodha claimed all the trusts were revoked on April 15, 1999. He claimed that he learnt of this only after Priyamvada's death.

MP Sharma, one of the witnesses of Priyamvada's 1999 will, told the court that in the first week of April 1999, Priyamvada told him that she had asked Lodha to prepare a draft document through which she would bequeath all her assets to public charity as this was her husband's wish.

Sharma said that on April 18, 1999, he went to Birla Park, where Lodha asked him to sign a document. He claimed he signed the document without reading the contents as he thought it was the document Priyamvada had spoken to him about.

He said Priyamvada was not present when he signed but the paper bore the signatures of PL Agarwal and ML Vaidya. Priyamvada's will dated April 18, 1999, had these three as witnesses.