Meet Parasmal Lodha, a small-time realtor who became Kolkata's go-to man

Parasmal Lodha's ability to befriend rich and powerful led to his rise to power and now his arrest

A fortnight ago, the Enforcement Directorate nabbed Kolkata-based businessman Parasmal Lodha for allegedly converting over Rs 25 crore in banned currency into new notes. 

Lodha, apparently, was facilitating conversion of old high value currency into new currency for J Sekhar Reddy, the Tamil Nadu-based sand mining baron from whose house tax officials recovered Rs 100 crore, and Rohit Tandon, the owner of Delhi-based law firm T&T, who reportedly never deposited cash in banks and from whose house crores were recovered by the Crime Branch of the Delhi Police. 

As it appears, Tandon and Lodha were converting the stash of cash for some influential people. Lodha has emerged as the central government’s prized catch in the demonetisation drive, a move aimed at eradicating black money from the country. 

He is in judicial custody now. Deepak Biswas of solicitor firm, S&B Partner says, he was illegally detained for two days. He was picked up from the Mumbai International Airport on December 19,  but was produced before court only on December 22. “It was said that he was trying to flee to Malaysia but there is no question of absconding, it was a business trip to Malaysia and he has made such trips earlier too. He is just being victimised.” 

Keeping a low-profile

It was a twist of fate that Lodha, who likes to operate from the shadows, hit the headlines. Yet, in the last three decades, there have been at least three instances where he has made news, albeit for the wrong reasons. 

But those who know Lodha would say, it’s the way he operates. “He has the remarkable ability to spot people from whom he could reap some benefits. Lodha’s only interest was to cut deals, any deal,” a city-based businessman says.

Lodha came to Kolkata from a family of moneylenders in Sujangarh, Rajasthan. He started off as a small-time real estate player, according to the businessman who has known him well. The first initiation into real estate came by picking up stakes in projects. 

But it’s probably his uncanny ability to befriend people that brought him close to the who’s who of Kolkata, most importantly politicians and bureaucrats in the Left Front regime. That, however, should not be mistaken for any allegiance to the Left Front. “Lodha had no allegiance to any party, his allegiance was to individuals,” the businessman adds.

And he peddled the influence to squeeze in extra floors in buildings in lieu of roof rights that he shared with the owner — something that earned him the nickname “Extra Floor Lodha”. The onus of getting the legal stamp from the Municipal Corporation was on Lodha and he managed it with minimum fuss.

Lodha’s reputation that he could get things done in Kolkata spread quickly. A real estate developer narrates a tale to project his image of the time. Twenty-five years ago, a Kolkata-based developer was on the verge of finalising a deal for a land parcel off-Southern Avenue. But multiple litigations surfaced over the ownership of the land. It emerged that Lodha was one of the key owners of the property. Without batting an eyelid, the developer called off the deal.

Lodha made quick bucks through the 1980s and early 1990s by cutting real estate deals. It was during this time that he built the fifth and sixth floors of Stephen Court that was gutted in 2010, killing 43 people. The incident, after many years, brought Lodha’s name to the fore. It’s not that he had anything to do with the mishap, but just that when he added the extra floors, he didn’t pay heed to extending the spiral staircase beyond the fourth floor. 

The takeover bid

In the late 1980s, Lodha came under the spotlight for raiding Peerless General Finance & Investment Company, which happened to be one of the biggest non-banking finance companies of the time. He had cornered 51 per cent of the company’s shares and a seat on the board, but income tax raids prompted him to sell out. PC Sen, then Peerless chairman & managing director, had allegedly filed a police complaint that Lodha had threatened to kill him. Lodha is still a shareholder of Peerless, according to sources close to him.

But neither real estate nor sale of Peerless shares gave Lodha the stash of cash that he now allegedly handles or possesses. 

“From real estate, he moved on to bigger deals,” a city-based industrialist said. That meant any deal, from mining to fixing. 

“He would take an advance of 70 per cent for fixing a deal. If it materialised, he would get 100 per cent. If it didn’t, he would still make 70 per cent,” the industrialist explains his modus operandi. Lodha, apparently, was close to acquiring controlling shares in a media company when he landed in the mess. 

But even as Lodha took pains to keep a low profile, away from the eyes of the prying media, in private circles, he flaunted his wealth and connections with aplomb. At a party, he told some people that he had close connection with top politicos in South Africa. Still, it could be purely coincidental that the Enforcement Directorate recovered diamonds and rubies from a bank locker allegedly linked to Lodha.

Wealth also reflected in Lodha’s five-storied house in upscale Queens Park of South Kolkata. “Ostentatious” and “opulent” was how those who have been there describe the house. In 2014, his daughter’s high profile wedding became the talking point in Delhi circles.

In the last two decades, Lodha shifted base from Kolkata to Delhi. “No one really knows what his real business now is,” an industrialist confides, but one can always be sure of his influential connections. The master deal maker is never far from the corridors of power.