Lilavati Kirtilal Mehta Medical Trust (LKMM Trust) on Friday said it has filed a Rs 1,000 crore civil defamation lawsuit against HDFC Bank MD & CEO Sashidhar Jagdishan, over a series of malicious, and false statements made against the Trust and its permanent trustee, Prashant Mehta.
IMAGE: Sashidhar Jagdishan, managing director and CEO, HDFC Bank. Photograph: Kind courtesy TERumel/wikipedia.org/Creative Commons, background image Shailesh Andrade/Reuters
The legal action aims to counter what the Trust views as a coordinated campaign to malign its reputation and obstruct its operations as a public charitable institution, the Trust, which manages and runs the prestigious Lilavati Hospital in Mumbai said in a statement.
In addition to the civil suit, the Trust has also filed a criminal complaint before the Metropolitan Magistrate, Girgaon, who has issued notice to the CEO, spokesperson, and corporate communication head of HDFC Bank.
The LKMM Trust and Prashant Mehta have never been a borrower to HDFC Bank but rather a lender depositing Rs 48 crore in the form of fixed deposits and bonds, it said.
The Trust and Prashant Mehta are not connected to the affairs of Splendour Gems in any manner whatsoever as fraudulently espoused by the CEO of HDFC, it said.
However, HDFC Bank had earlier refuted charges saying the bank and its senior officials are being targeted by unscrupulous persons who are abusing the legal process to thwart the recovery of the long outstanding loan due to the bank from recalcitrant defaulters i.e Splendour Gems Ltd (formerly known as Beautiful Diamonds Ltd).
The bank had said it was concerned about its stakeholders and is on the verge of taking strong legal actions as per expert advice, against those who are initiating these baseless allegations with malafide and ulterior motives or involved in propagating the same.
