The family feud between real estate moguls Abhishek Lodha-led Macrotech Developers and Abhinandan Lodha’s House of Abhinandan Lodha (HoABL) has escalated after Macrotech accused HoABL of forgery and using “fabricated documents” to misuse the company’s brand and registered trademark ‘Lodha’. In response to this, Lodha Ventures, the parent company of The House of Abhinandan Lodha (HoABL), said, “We are internally looking into the matter and shall revert with our detailed response. Suffice it to state that the House of Abhinandan Lodha does not admit any of the allegations of fraud and forgery sought to be attributed to us.”
In a regulator filing, Macrotech Developers on Wednesday said that certain HoABL entities had used forged board resolutions (BR) and fake PAN card to secure approval for corporate name changes incorporating ‘Lodha’.
Macrotech Developers claimed that certain HoABL entities used purported BRs of the company containing a no objection for use of the company’s trademarks and filed the same with government authorities, while adding that “No board meeting of the company has been held on the date which is stated in these BRs and the company’s board has never considered or approved such BRs in any of its meetings whatsoever.”
While maintaining that the BRs had the signature of the company’s independent director, it asserted that the signature was not his and is “significantly different from his true signature”. In fact, the PAN card copy of the said director attached with the document was also fraudulent. “On comparison against the actual PAN card of the said independent director, it is seen that his signature and photograph have been changed,” it added.
“The said Independent Director of the company has also confirmed that he has not certified any such BRs, the signature on the said BRs is not his, and the PAN card copy attached is different from his actual PAN card,” Marcotech Developers revealed to the exchanges.
Macrotech claimed that at least two HoABL companies approved and procured a change in their corporate names to the names starting with ‘Lodha’ from the relevant Government authorities, and used the changed name of these companies for furtherance of their business activities.
Taking serious cognizance of the issue, the Board has constituted a Special Committee of Directors to look into this and take appropriate legal action. “Mr Abhishek Lodha has requested not to be part of this Committee and the same has been accepted,” it said.
The background
The family feud between the Lodha brothers has been ongoing for quite some time now with the most recent development being Abhishek Lodha’s Macrotech Developers filing a Rs 5,000 crore lawsuit against the younger brother’s firm, HoABL. The issue has been in the making since years now fuelled by longstanding disputes over the use of the ‘Lodha’ brand. The Lodha brothers are sons of BJP leader and Maharashtra cabinet minister Mangal Prabhat Lodha.
In February, the mother of warring brothers, Manju Lodha too had to step in to stop the dispute. Manju Lodha, in a letter to the two brothers, asked them to stop their dispute immediately. In the letter, she had said, “…I request you to stop all your disputes immediately.”
The dispute was birthed back to 2015 when the brothers had decided to part ways, which was formalised in a family settlement agreement in March 2017.