Swords Out In Fight Over Dadi House
The tussle between the Bombay Parsi Punchayet trustees and its former chairman Dinshaw Mehta is all set to get murkier with the latter filing a complaint with the MRA Marg police. The case dates back to a 2013 sale of tenancy of Dadi House, a commercial property in Bora Bazaar area. The trustees had alleged discrepancy of Rs 20 lakh and accused Mehta of misappropriation of funds.
On July 21, Mehta filed a complaint with MRA police against the current trustees who transferred the tenancy to Musharaf Kader, Abdul Kareem and Mohinuddin Kader despite the three tenants being named as co-accused in the case pending in court. “I just want the police to thoroughly investigate. Why is that few of the current trustees have suddenly changed their mind to transfer the tenancy even when it had remained pending for so long. There is definitely some scheming going on,” Mehta said.
Musharaf, Abdul and Mohinuddin took possession of one floor of Dadi House and started a guesthouse in the premises. They have been in touch with BPP’s past trustees as well as the present board (elected in October 2015), requesting them to transfer the tenancy rights stuck because of the infighting among the trustees.
Infighting amongst the earlier BPP board had been fodder for gossip in the community. In July 2013, the infighting took a turn for the worse after the controversial sale of tenancy of Dadi House. While Mehta claimed that Rs 45 lakh was paid, one of the trustees Yazdi Desai had alleged that the sale was fixed at Rs 65 lakh. Following this, four trustees including Desai filed a complaint against Mehta at the Economic Offences Wing for misappropriation of funds and obtained a stay from the charity commissioner stalling all property deals in December 2013. While Mehta was exonerated by the EOW after it turned out that the amount was Rs 45 lakh, another trustee named Khojestee Mistry then approached the court against Mehta as there were still unexplained discrepancies in date of cheques. This case is due for hearing on August 2.
Mehta in his complaint has alleged that the transfer has been carried out “in exchange of their making false and motivated allegations against me for their own hidden agenda, to malign my reputation.”
Mumbai Mirror spoke to a current trustee, Kersi Randeria, who said that Mehta’s complaint to MRA Mmarg police is nothing but an attempt to divert the police and community’s attention. “The new board of trustees has been collecting evidence against Mehta and the loopholes in the Dadi House deal. We have already met the police commissioner and submitted the proof that we have,” said Randeria.
Commissioner of Police Dattatray Padsalgikar confirmed the BPP trustees had met him. “Whatever they have submitted will be investigated by the MRA Marg police.”
Published on MumbaiMirror
