A city civil court in Mumbai on Saturday rejected the application of Prabodh Mehta, the former trustee of the Lilavati Kirtilal Mehta Medical Trust (LKM Trust), seeking an extension of an order that issued a stay on the order dismissing him as its trustee.
Prabodh, the younger brother of a former Lilavati Hospital CEO, late Vijay Mehta, was dismissed on the grounds that he was convicted for offence of “moral turpitude” in Belgium.
The joint charity commissioner on April 5 had ousted Prabodh as a trustee as he was accused of money laundering and fraud running up to hundreds of crores of rupees. However, Prabodh later had appealed to the commissioner seeking time; the order was stayed for a period of 30 days. Post the completion of the 30 days grace period, he appealed to the lower court for an extension of four more weeks.
Prabodh has now moved the Bombay high court against the order of the city civil court. The appeal might be heard on Monday.
The allegations against Prabodh are that he and his son Chetan possess Belgian passports and had siphoned money to an account there. Also, Prabodh and his brother Rashmi are also allegedly featured on the Liechtenstein Bank black money trail list handed over by the German government to the Indian authority.
The Supreme Court in an order dated October 21, 2011, had upheld freezing of LKM Trust’s (Lilavati trust) fixed deposits of over `150 crore at various banks after allegations of corruption were levelled against it. Prabodh has been handling the financial accounts of the hospital since November 2008. However, Charu Mehta, another trustee of LKM, has alleged that Prabodh siphoned off money from the trust. In his defence, Prabodh claimed that he has been falsely implicated.