HDFC Bank CEO Jagdishan moves Bombay HC to quash FIR by Lilavati Trust

The FIR by Lilavati Trust accuses Sashidhar Jagdishan of accepting ₹2.05 crore from members of the Chetan Mehta Group in exchange for helping them retain control over the Trust

HDFC Bank’s Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Sashidhar Jagdishan, has moved the Bombay High Court to quash a  First Information Report (FIR) against him filed by the Lilavati Kirtilal Mehta Medical Trust, Bar and Bench reported on Wednesday. The Trust, which manages Mumbai’s Lilavati Hospital, had registered a complaint against Jagdishan alleging financial fraud.

 

The matter was listed before a division bench comprising Justice AS Gadkari and Justice Rajesh Patil. However, both judges recused themselves from hearing the case, and it will now be placed before another bench for further proceedings, the report added.

 

What is the case? 

The FIR accuses Jagdishan of accepting ₹2.05 crore from members of the Chetan Mehta Group in exchange for helping them retain control over the Lilavati Kirtilal Mehta Medical Trust. The payment, according to the complaint, was intended to secure strategic and financial guidance to manipulate the Trust’s internal affairs — an act the trustees have characterised as an abuse of power by the HDFC Bank CEO, Bar and Bench reported.

 

 

 

In a statement issued on June 9, the Trust alleged that the ₹2.05 crore payment formed part of a wider effort by Jagdishan to assist the Mehta Group in maintaining undue influence over the hospital’s governance. It also claimed that Jagdishan and his family benefited from unbilled medical treatment at Lilavati Hospital in Mumbai, and said this has not been acknowledged by the bank, the report added. 

The Trust further alleged that deposits and investments worth ₹48 crore had been placed with HDFC Bank since 2022, raising concerns over a possible conflict of interest. It also claimed that an offer of ₹1.5 crore was made to hospital staff under the guise of corporate social responsibility (CSR) funding. The Trust stated that this was an attempt to influence internal operations.

 

What does Jagdishan claim? 

Appearing for Jagdishan, Senior Advocate Amit Desai dismissed the allegations as absurd. “It’s one of the most absurd allegations that he received money from trustees. The absurdity of the allegation is that he allegedly received ₹2 crore to harass HDFC Bank borrowers,” Desai told the court on Wednesday.

 

He argued that the FIR was prompted by HDFC Bank’s loan recovery proceedings against Splendour Gems Limited, a company led by the Mehta family, which had defaulted on dues totalling ₹65.22 crore as of May 31. “These actions follow recovery proceedings initiated by the bank against a company owned by the father of one of the trustees,” he said, as quoted by Bar and Bench.

 

Desai further claimed that the criminal complaint had only been registered after the Trust’s earlier appeals to the Union Finance Minister, the Reserve Bank of India, and the Anti-Corruption Bureau failed to yield results. “They now use the facade of Lilavati Trust to take action against us,” he added.

 

Trust, bank spar over dues

 

In an exchange filing on June 8, the bank condemned the Trust’s action, accusing the Mehta family of attempting to obstruct and undermine recovery proceedings related to substantial, long-standing dues owed by the family-owned Splendor Gems through LKMM Trust.

 

Following this, on June 11, LKMM Trust and its permanent trustee, Prashant Mehta, alleged that HDFC Bank had not presented any official loan ledger or agreement in court to establish the existence of a loan. The Trust pointed to multiple figures cited in various legal filings — ₹4.8 crore, ₹65.22 crore, and ₹450 crore — as evidence of inconsistencies in the bank’s position.

 

“The Trust maintains that no such borrowing ever took place,” said Mehta. “If there is a loan, the bank should be able to produce a definitive loan agreement and ledger.”