YAZDI DESAI ONCE AGAIN EXPOSED
In Parsi Times of 27-5-2017, Yazdi Desai continues to live in his own world and not able to face the truth. After the slap on his face given by the community as well as the Govt. of India by nominating Vada Dasturji Khurshed Dasturji, High Priest of Udvada, an equally pragmatic and practical individual similar in all respects to Dinshaw Tamboly, Yazdi Desai once again rants and raves about the criminal Police Complaint filed by him and Khojeste Mistry against me which is still under investigation after over 3 years.
Just to educate his petty mind, I have to once again repeat and remind him that the whole history of Yazdi’s original complaint to EOW of the Crime Branch of Mumbai police in November 2013 was that the Transfer fees of Dadi House tenancy to Musharaf Kader was actually Rs. 65 lakhs out of which only Rs. 45 lakhs had been received by BPP as I had allegedly misappropriated and taken away the balance Rs. 20 lakhs cash from Musharaf.
When the EOW found no merit in the complaint and closed the case in December 2013, Yazdi Desai got his Wapiz Trustee Khojeste Mistry to file the same false fabricated complaint in the Magistrate’s Court at Ballard Pier in January 2014, who directed MRA Marg police to investigate and report. In May 2015 the police gave their report to the Court that once again there was no merit in the complaint and proposed closure of the complaint.
Khojeste’s criminal lawyers managed to prolong the matter and in October 2015 a new team of Trustees was elected. Then started another round of twists and turns. As reported earlier Yazdi Desai called Musharaf in May 2016 not to BPP office but to his Writer Corporation office at Byculla where Randeria was also present. To cut a long story short Musharaf was made to agree to give a false Affidavit of cash given and received back from me. But the moot point is that all the Trustees including Yazdi, Khojeste and Randeria now acknowledged that transfer fees was indeed only Rs. 45 lakhs and was never Rs. 65 lakhs as earlier falsely alleged by them, denigrating me and maligning my impeccable reputation.
Hence their original complaint of misappropriation is now proved and admitted to be a false and bogus complaint by the Trustees themselves so they evolved a new story of cash given and received back. I will not go into it as it is sub-judice and will await police investigation. Thus Yazdi and Khojeste have filed false and fabricated complaints before EOW, Magistrate’s Court, and two Applications in Charity Commissioner’s office at cost of charity funds all of which they have miserably lost. It shows the mind set of Yazdi Desai that he conveniently does not mention all these cases initially filed by them in November 2013 at BPP cost, due to which all subsequent events followed.
Let us now examine the various cases cited by him.
In June 2015, Mr. Cama due to his frustration of over 100 flats lying vacant and unallotted to the needy and deserving since November 2013 due to stay order sent his resignation letter. Though consideration of his resignation was not taken by me on the Agenda of 16-6-2015 as it was not properly addressed, yet Yazdi Desai with Khojeste and Arnavaz Mistry through their majority accepted the resignation of Mr. Cama just 15 minutes before he withdrew his resignation and then immediately filed Change Report in the office of the Charity Commissioner on 20-6-2015 to remove his name as a Trustee, instead of magnanimously accepting the withdrawal mail and allow him to continue.
From then onwards started a web of cases.
Yazdi admits that in the meaningless Change Report matter he has so far already paid Rs. 10 lakhs of community funds and it is our guess that another Rs. 20 lakhs at least are pending to be paid for legal costs.
Since they suspected that Armaity Tirandaz and Viraf Mehta were privy to payments of legal costs for exposing them, Yazdi and Randeria instructed administration not to give any information to them of any sort forcing them to move the High Court who gave a sharp rap on their knuckles and ordered the gang of four to give all information to them. In fact they were goaded to move the High Court by Yazdi Desai continuously taunting them to move Court if they wanted files and payment statements. Yazdi and Randeria have squandered almost Rs. 50 lakhs of community funds to defend this indefensible action in the High Court to deny them any information. Shocking that though Noshir Dadrawalla himself had suffered this humiliation in his first term for which he moved legally and got relief yet did nothing to stop his colleagues to repeat the same high handed dictatorship on Armaity and Viraf. So much for the big talk of transparency and accountability of the gang of four. Another round of litigation is probably going to commence due to intransigence of the gang of four to abide by the High Court order.
For almost 8 to 9 months after the filing of the Change Report, Mr. Cama used to be sent all Court papers as well as Leave License Agreements to sign and generally was treated as a Trustee in keeping with the opinion given by Rent Act expert Mr. K.K. Nariman that Mr. Cama continues to be a Trustee till the change report order proclaims otherwise.
Suddenly thereafter Yazdi and Randeria decided to exclude him from this formality in spite of adverse legal opinion forcing Mr. Cama to file an Application with Charity Commissioner u/s 41E claiming his right to be a signatory to sign all papers and agreements. If Yazdi had not been so egoistical to deny Mr. Cama the right to sign the Agreements he would not have moved the Charity Commissioner. Thus it was the idiotic decision to stop suddenly treating him as a Trustee that Mr. Cama was forced to file litigation. Yazdi brought it upon himself but he was least bothered as they were defending not with their own funds but at cost of charity funds.
Since Yazdi and Randeria continued to deny his right to sign court papers and Agreements, once again in retaliation Mr. Cama moved the High Court where he got orders from the Court to the Office of the Charity Commissioner to expedite the hearing in the Change Report matter as Yazdi Desai was deliberately taking adjournments to delay the findings so as to frustrate Mr. Cama to resume his duty as a Trustee as his term was expiring in July 2018 in any case. Thus once again it was the attitude and delaying tactics of Yazdi Desai that forced Mr. Cama to move the High Court. The hypocrisy of Yazdi Desai is astounding –to complain of multiple litigation’s after actually forcing Mr. Cama to file them.
In view of the gang of four disregarding the legal opinion given by the Rent Act Expert Advocate Mr. K K Nariman that Mr. Cama continues to be a Trustee unless held otherwise by Charity Commissioner, it is reported that in disgust the said advocate has returned around 20 BPP cases that he was representing and refused to represent them any further in view of clash of interests. The most important case with Mr. Nariman is that of HPCL petrol pump worth over Rs. 100 crores which at present is pending final Arguments and Judgement.
When will our Trustees act first in the interest of the community keeping aside their egos and personal prejudices and likes and dislikes. For Gods sake stop this revengeful and vindictive attitude as our whole community and its funds are affected by such crass behavior.
Yazdi Desai has used charity funds to file a proposed defamation suit of Rs. 100 crores against Bombay Samachar, Mr. Cama and myself, which he has cleverly not disclosed. WONDER HOW MUCH CHARITY FUNDS HE IS GOING TO SPEND ON THIS PROPOSED LITIGATION.
Yazdi then talks of the PARSI LYING IN HOSPITAL case. Our only demand was to give a Public Notice and call for Offers from interested Health Care Institutions and not have a private closed door deal with a partner of one of the Managing Committee member. However for some strange reason they refused to be transparent in calling for offers. I was forced to move the Supreme Court which appreciating our argument gave a stay order in September 2016 and rather than be exposed in Supreme Court, Lessee Khubchandani immediately terminated the Lease Agreement but the Trustees did not agree to our offer to withdraw the SLP since then but the Trustees continued to fight till it was dismissed in March 2017 as being infructuous.
And even now the Trustees do not want to issue a Public Notice for best Offer for lease of the property in case a very good offer is received and they would stand exposed and instead they have decided to repair and restore the Hospital and put it to community use. If it is capable of being repaired now, then even seven years ago it could have been repaired at a far less cost, then why was it sought to be alienated and leased off to Khubchandani at lease rent of just Rs. 1 crore a year after 7 years and then 5% of revenue. They have only themselves to blame for the lakhs of litigation costs that charity had to expand to hide their own misdeeds in this matter.
Similarly the Adarbad dispute which all previous Trustees since almost 30 years had steadfastly opposed that Lease would not be given only of land but as per Agreements signed by all Purchasers of both land and the building standing thereon. In the October 2015 elections it is rumoured that the gang of four before the elections arrived at a compromise with the Society that they would give the Society lease of land and conveyance of Building in exchange for their support in the elections and naturally since the settlement terms were against the interest of the Trust and community they had to be opposed. I am challenging it legally at my own cost whilst the Trustees are mis-using community funds to defend and refuse to put their hands in their own pockets to defend such litigation.
The last case cited by Yazdi Desai is the recent application made by Mr. Cama to Charity Commissioner for removal of the gang of four u/s 41D of Bombay public Trust Act who have been instrumental in causing immense loss to charity and other deserving Parsis by alloting flats to ineligible lessees.
A few example from Mr. Cama’s application are
1) illegally allotting free a Rs. 4 crore flat in Cusrow Baug in March 2016 at a ridiculous license fee of Rs. 1000/pm to the ineligible Dr. Farokh Master having two ownership flats and a declared Income of over Rs. 5 lakhs a month and without the mandatory publication of his name in Parsi Press.
2) paying Rs. 1.5 crore of charity funds in June 2016 to a 1700 sq ft flat Ness Baug tenant married to a non-Parsi against whom a suit had been filed in 2011 by earlier Trustees to settle the matter and file Consent Terms and then for over a year taking no steps to recover the Proposed Rs. 4 crore expected for it.
3) allotting a Godrej Baug flat to the ineligible Arzan Khambatta in May 2016, nephew of partner of Kersi Randeria with an income of Rs. 1.5 lakhs a month for a measly donation of Rs. 8 Lakhs whilst there is an offer of Rs. 60 lakhs for it.
4) Yazdi Desai himself and his wife (only two of them) is illegally occupying a 4 RK 1200 sq ft flat in Rustom Baug without any License at a highly subsidized rate and the 600 sq ft flat in Godrej Baug which Yazdi was earlier occupying is now occupied singly by his brother, thus just three of them occupying 7 Rooms and kitchen. It is shameful that as a Trustee and Chairman taking such huge benefits of trust property and on top of it they have been filing bogus cases on genuine occupants on alleged ground of requirement of Trust when Yazdi himself should surrender the Rustom Baug flat and move to his fathers Godrej Baug flat with his brother as only three of them will then be occupying the 2 RK flat.
5) One Sanaya Bachana was allotted a flat in May 2016 in Godrej Baug though her income was Rs. 1,53,221/pm where a non-Parsi husband is also residing and no case has been filed for breach of Parsi only covenant.
6) One Kaizad Gandhi having an income of Rs. 1,12,401/ per month and hence ineligible was allotted another flat in May 2016 though he was adequately housed in Salcette paying license fees of Rs. 20,000/ pm
7) One Rayomand Pavri with an Income of Rs. 1,11568/pm was alloted a flat in April 2016 though ineligible and further his father Major General Soli Pavri has a huge 2000 sq ft flat at Wodehouse Road which he wants to sell and distribute its value to both his son and daughter. This case had been rejected by the earlier board but the new board found them deserving.
8) Palash Ankleseria with an income of Rs. 1,14944/ pm though ineligible was allotted a flat in January 2016.
9) Mehernosh Subedar with an Income of Rs. 2,15,681/pm though ineligible was allotted in January 2016.
10) Zubin Fitter with a monthly income of Rs. 1,72,889/ was allotted in April 2016 though ineligible.
11) Flat 8 Bldg.12 Khareghat colony suit filed for induction in 1998 was settled by paying Rs. 27 lakhs in September 2016 as a reward to the inductee which is a gross misuse of charity funds.
12) Flat 1A, bldg 6 , Khareghat Colony of Kersi Bhada was paid Rs. 19.2 lakhs of charity funds to vacate.
13) Khushru Dandiwalla though 206 in merit list and adequately housed in Vasai was allotted a flat in February 2016 in Nowroz Baug.
14) Eric Bacha also allotted out of turn in April 2016 though residing in Vasai.
15) There are various other irregularities that have been exposed by Mr. Cama but the above will suffice for the present.
With such gross irregularities is it not time that the gang of four should be called upon to be accountable for their actions and justifiably Mr. Cama has rightly taken a bold stand to bring out all the shady dealings of the gang of four. Mr. Cama spends the legal costs from his own pocket just as Viraf and I have done but the gang of four use community funds to sponsor their litigation. Let the Trustees pay from their own pockets and perhaps the need for such exposures will no longer remain.
Yours Sincerely
– Dinshaw Mehta
