PLIH Agreement terminated. Krimson avoids Supreme Court scrutiny

Krimson Runs Away From Supreme Court Scrutiny, say BPP Trustee ARMAITY TIRANDAZ & BPP Ex-Chairman DINSHAW MEHTA

It is with great pleasure we inform you that the Parsi Lying In Hospital (PLIH), Tehmulji’s Suvavarkhanu, has been saved from being given away to a Developer, which in our view is a fraud that was attempted to be played on the community.

As you are aware, for the last few months we have been fighting to save our PLIH from being leased away to a Developer lobby in a private deal without a Public Advertisement calling for offers from other health care institutions. This has now been accomplished. In September 2015, we moved the Supreme Court against the alienation of the PLIH in a deal with a builder called Khubchandani of Krimson Health Ventures Pvt. Ltd, who happens to be a business partner of a member of the Managing Committee.

In the SLP filed by us, we had contended that the Agreement to Lease entered into with Krimson by the PLIH Managing Committee, who is responsible wholly and solely for the day to day management of PLIH, by misrepresenting themselves as Trustees and owners of the property, was fraudulent in nature.

We further claimed that the Managing Committee entered into a private deal with the Developer whereby BPP property worth over Rs. 100 crores would be leased away to the Developer for a minimum lease rent of Rs. 1 to 1.5 crore a year for a period of 30+30 years and maximum of 5% of revenue after 8 years. We cried foul when we found out that this deal was done in a closed door transaction without calling for any Public Offer through Advertisements in newspapers.

The very essence of the case was that the Managing Committee had no authority in entering into the Agreement to Lease and should be struck down as the same was fraudulent.

In fact, this same charge was levied by all the then BPP Trustees unanimously in their Writ Petition No. 938 of 2013 filed in Bombay High Court. However, after disputes arose between the Trustees in April 2015, the majority Trustees changed their stance and accepted the Lease Agreement signed by the PLIH Managing Committee, without any authority, with some minor changes.

On 13 October 2015, the Supreme Court of India stayed the Agreement to Lease entered into by the PLIH Managing Committee Members and Krimson. The Supreme Court had directed the Respondents to file their say within 4 weeks.

However, before either Krimson or the PLIH Managing Committee could file their reply, Krimson has withdrawn from the transaction in toto. This is obviously because the Managing Committee and Krimson realized that the Supreme Court would go into the merits of the matter and see why a deal of this kind was entered into by the PLIH Managing Committee with Krimson, which reeked of fraud. By terminating the Agreement they have avoided scrutiny by the Supreme Court whose investigation would have revealed the alleged fraud that was attempted to be played by leasing away community assets in a closed door deal to a business partner of one of the Managing Committee’s family members.

The Managing Committee has some highly respected members of society and it would be utter humiliation for them if strictures were passed by the Supreme Court against the Managing Committee and Krimson for this transaction.

Good sense has prevailed upon them and hence the Agreement has been cancelled. It is now revealed that Krimson has paid for all legal fees of the Managing Committee for the last three years, which amounts to over Rs. 1 Crore, which Krimson is now claiming to be reimbursed to them by the PLIH Managing Committee, along with the Rs. 25 lakhs deposit given by them.

How desperate Krimson was to secure the deal in its favour is clear from the fact that Krimson has admittedly funded the entire litigation cost incurred by the PLIH Managing Committee. We had always alleged that there is a direct conflict of interest between the PLIH Managing Committee members and Krimson and this sort of collusive litigation simply proves our case.

It is shocking to us that the PLIH Managing Committee entered into collusive litigation against the community’s interests just to ensure that the deal with Krimson goes through.

Krimson in their termination letter states that they are completely disgusted with the state of affairs and delay in implementing the agreement and have attempted to blame us for their failure of the deal not going through.

It is pertinent to point out that from March 2011 till April 2015 ALL the BPP Trustees had objected to the Lease. It is also pertinent to point out that they have not dealt with a single allegation levelled against them (many of which are serious in nature) because they are well aware that the facts of the matter are against them. Krimson’s letter terminating the lease is simply a disguise under which they are trying to wriggle out of the embarrassment that would be faced by them had the Supreme Court gone into the merits of the case.

At this point we must thank community activists Rayomand Zaiwala, Fali Poncha and Xerxes Dastur, amongst others, who supported us in our endeavor to save our PLIH property.

We have spent several lakhs of our own money in this litigation and it is with satisfaction that we can today state that the truth has prevailed. It is our genuine request that the BPP Trustees should take over the management of the PLIH and utilize the property in the best possible way in the interest of the community at large and not for a few.

Perhaps a home for children with special needs can be set up there with the benevolence of benefactors like Dr. Cyrus Poonawalla or Muncherji Cama.