The trustees of Mumbai's Lilavati Hospital have filed complaints of fraud against seven former trustees and 10 others alleging financial irregularities to the tune of Rs 1,250 crore over the past two decades. A case under sections of the law including cheating, forgery, and criminal breach of trust was registered on March 6. This was the third FIR registered on the allegations since June last year. The Lilavati Kirtilal Mehta Medical Trust runs the marquee hospital in Bandra Reclamation, which is patronised by prominent residents of the city including Bollywood celebrities. Actor Saif Ali Khan underwent surgery at Lilavati Hospital after he was attacked by an intruder in his home in Bandra in January. The alleged fraud According to Prashant Kishore Mehta, one of the three Permanent Trustees of the Lilavati Kirtilal Mehta Medical Trust, the trust was under “illegal control” of the seven former trustees for various lengths of time for 20 years up to December 14, 2023, when the assistant charity commissioner ended their “illegal regime”. After the board of trustees was reconstituted, the current trustees commissioned a forensic audit, which revealed financial irregularities to the tune of almost Rs 1,250 crore, Param Bir Singh, a former Commissioner of Mumbai Police who is currently executive director at the hospital, said. A first FIR was filed at Bandra police station in July 2024 accusing the former trustees of cheating and forgery worth Rs 12 crore, Singh said. A second FIR was filed in December 2024 on the direction of a court in Bandra on the alleged syphoning of Rs 44 crore of hospital funds on the pretext of paying legal fees. The hospital has written to the Directorate of Enforcement, asking the central agency to take cognizance of the three FIRs. It has alleged money laundering by the accused, who it says have acquired huge properties abroad with the proceeds of the crime. The accused former trustees are currently in Dubai and Belgium, Singh said. The audit and FIRs The former trustees, in connivance with the other accused, allegedly “embezzled funds and committed a fraud” in the purchase of medical, office, and electrical equipment; furniture; computers; medical and legal books; vehicles and ambulances, etc. According to the FIR, the former “illegal trustees” struck deals with a certain well known supply chain company for the purchase or supply of medical equipment at inflated rates, even though the hospital had its own purchase and procurement department. The former trustees had established “illegal control” over the trust for the sole purpose of misappropriating hospital funds, says the FIR. At the behest of the accused, the hospital engaged third-party distributors, and agreed to purchase equipment and supplies from the accused company, despite knowing that it had incurred losses in the past, the FIR says. According to the complaint, the audit revealed that the accused supply-chain company had suffered losses in the 2019-2020 and 2020-21 financial years, but the ex-trustees still signed a letter of intent (LoI) with the firm. The audit found that the former trustees and their associates placed orders without verifying the details and background of the companies. Payments were made at inflated rates, but the hospital never actually got the “ordered equipment”. Other than a few emails written to the main accused former trustee, no approval for these actions was formally taken from the board. The accused allegedly created a new domain for email communication, and gave alternative email IDs to third parties to keep conversations off the books. During an internal inquiry, officers of the hospital’s surgical and stores department told investigators that the accused former trustees had issued instructions saying the quantity and quality of the purchased products should not be checked. Allegations of black magic According to Param Bir Singh, some former employees of the trust have reported that black magic rituals were carried out in the office where Permanent Trustee Prashant Mehta and his mother Charu Mehta, Founder and Permanent Trustee for Life, sit. “Eight pots filled with human remains, bones, rice, human hair, and other black magic material were found buried when the office floor was dug up,” Singh said. The rituals were apparently intended to cause harm to Prashant Mehta and Charu Mehta. “After police refused to lodge a complaint, Bandra court was approached, and now the magistrate himself is enquiring into the matter,” Singh said.
