Real estate company Macrotech Developers Ltd. (Lodha) has informed the bourses about forgery and fraud allegedly committed by House of Abhinandan Lodha (HoABL) which is mostly into plotted real estate development.
In its filing, Macrotech alleged that HoBAL had fabricated aboard resolution of Macrotech and a PAN card of its independent director Ashwani Kumar, the ex-chairman and MD of Dena Bank.
The ‘fraudulent document’ was then used to manipulate government records and change HoABL group company names, allowing them to operate under the Lodha name by infringing Microtech’s Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), Lodha alleged.
Currently, a High Court initiated mediation process is on for settlement of IPR disputes between the two companies controlled by the Lodha brothers.
“We are internally looking into the matter and shall revert with our detailed response. Suffice it is 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,” a spokesperson for HoABL said in a statement.
In the exchange filing Macrotech said, “We would like to update you on certain serious, critical and startling facts that have come to the company’s knowledge, which warrant this disclosure.”
“It has come to the company’s knowledge that certain HoABL entities have used purported board resolutions (BRs) of the company containing a no-objection for use of the company’s trademarks and filed the same with government authorities,” it said.
“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,” Mactotech said.
“Such BRs filed with the governmental authorities have signature of company’s one Independent Director [Ashwani Kumar]. This signature is not his signature and is significantly different from his true signature,” it added.
“On comparison against the actual PAN card of the said Independent Director, it is seen that his signature and photograph have been changed. The said Independent Director 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,” it further said.
Stating that the boards of at least two HoABL companies approved and procured a change in their corporate names to the names starting with ‘LODHA’ (which is the registered trademark of the company) from the relevant government authorities, using the above referred documents, it said they used the changed name of these companies for furtherance of their business activities.
It said the board in its meeting held on Wednesday perused the relevant documents and taken “serious cognizance of the conspiracy to use fabricated documents in order to misuse the company’s goodwill, brand, and registered trademark.”
The Board has constituted a Special Committee of Directors to look into this and take appropriate legal action and Abhishek Lodha has requested not to be part of this committee and the same has been accepted.
Macrotech is now considering criminal action in this case of fraud, forgery, identity theft and conspiracy, according to officials.
In its statement, Macrotech Developers said, “It is a clear cut case of forgery, fraud and impersonation with intent to cheat and deceive.”
“The concerned entities and individuals have created a completely fake resolution of Macrotech Developers (Lodha) including a false letterhead, false company stamp, false board meeting date, and content which we have never approved, with a false sign of our Independent Director which is nowhere close to his actual signature,” it said.
“This was supported by identity fraud of Ashwani Kumar, former Chairman & Managing Director (CMD) of Dena Bank, whose PAN card was tampered with – photo and signature changed – in order to enable this resolution to be accepted by Registrar of Companies. We are shocked at the extent of the conspiracy and how the systems of the government were misused,” it added.
Published – April 02, 2025 09:05 pm IST
