Trust Says No Dues to HDFC
In a dramatic turn of events, the Lilavati Kirtilal Mehta Medical Trust stepped forward on June 9 with a fiery rebuttal. According to their latest statement, neither the Trust nor its trustee Prashant Kishor Mehta has any financial ties or pending obligations toward HDFC Bank. They flat-out rejected any association with Splendour Gems Ltd, the company at the center of the loan controversy.
And then came the real shocker. The Trust accused HDFC Bank’s Managing Director and CEO, Sashidhar Jagdishan, of accepting a bribe worth Rs 2.05 crore. This amount, they alleged, was to ensure that the control of the Trust remained in Chetan Mehta Group hands by improper means. As per reports, the CEO has not offered any denial on the bribe accusation.
A Long Financial Tangle
This conflict goes back years. Splendour Gems Ltd borrowed a package of loans in 1995 from HDFC Bank and secured banks. But things soured by 2001 when the company was tagged a defaulter. That’s when the chase began.
Three years later, in 2004, HDFC Bank secured a recovery certificate from the Debt Recovery Tribunal. It granted them the authority to collect the money still due. Despite the passage of time, those dues remain largely unsettled, according to bank records.
Fresh Charges Rock the Bank
What came next seemed almost cinematic. On June 8, the Lilavati Trust fired fresh accusations, naming not just the CEO but also eight others. The allegations are financial fraud, embezzlement, document tampering, and misappropriation of funds. And the Trust didn’t stop there. They slapped a Rs 1,000 crore civil and criminal defamation suit against the bank’s top leadership.
HDFC Bank, however, pushed back hard. In a strongly worded statement, the bank described the claims as wild, false, and designed to distract. According to them, this was a deliberate attempt by defaulters to smear their image and block their recovery path.
FIR Adds to the Conflict
The Mehta family took it a step further by filing an FIR, escalating the situation legally. HDFC Bank dismissed this move as a weak strategy to avoid consequences. They labelled the complaint as desperate and unfounded, vowing to carry on their loan recovery moves ahead steadily.
Market Shows No Panic
Interestingly, all this noise didn’t rattle the stock market. On Monday, HDFC Bank’s shares barely moved, closing at Rs 1,978.60.
The battle between one of Mumbai’s leading medical trusts and a top private lender seems far from over.
