“Chaos and confusion”
Who initiated the story about the Wadia baugs is the heated topic of emails between two Bombay Parsi Punchayet trustees
The emails exchanged between BPP chairman Dinshaw Mehta, trustees Khojeste Mistree and Yazdi Desai have been edited for stylistic purposes, repetition and to remove passages that are particularly offensive, and/or casting aspersions against individuals other than those officially involved with the BPP and the Wadia trusts.
As Munchi was leaving the BPP board room, he requested me to send a draft letter to all the trustees for approval before it is signed and sent to the Editor of MM. The draft letter is as follows:
"We the trustees of the BPP are distressed and concerned by the inaccuracies in the article which was published on the front page of the MM dated, May 20, 2014.
"We wish to state that there is no truth in what has been written in the article and we would urge you not to print half-baked information without checking facts with the trustees of the BPP. We would also like to point out that no meetings have been held to discuss any such issue as has been wrongly suggested in the article.”
PS: Please confirm whether the wording is right, as discussed in the board, so that this letter can be signed by the trustees and sent to the MM office.
The proposed letter to MM drafted by Khojeste is neither true nor correct. Ever since we transferred two crore rupees of our own funds lying with the Wadia Committee to our BPP account for the Mobed Amelioration Scheme, (Nusli) Wadia has been emphatic that the BPP had no right to the said monies and that he wants to revive the Wadia Trust and take back the Wadia baugs from the BPP, for which he also threatened that he would move the Charity Commissioner (CC) and the courts to achieve that objective, to which some of you seem to have no objection.
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I agree with Yazdi that this proposed letter to MM should be ignored and no reply be sent out. It would be highly inaccurate and false to state that this issue was not discussed at the Wadia Committee meetings.
In fact at the last Wadia Committee meeting Nusli, whilst handing over legal opinions obtained by him from senior counsels on the issue of existence of the Wadia trusts, did reiterate that he would move the courts to take back the Wadia baugs at which time I categorically informed him that the Wadia Trust has ceased to exist long back.
In view of the above the incorrect letter as drafted by Khojeste cannot be signed by me in its current form.
Email dated May 26, 2014 from Mehta to all the BPP trustees
I refer to the Parsi Times (PT) article dated May 24, 2014 which reiterates the said MM statement that the four BPP trustees in question are in favor of handing over the Wadia Baugs back to the Wadia family. The four trustees in question are requested to explain this statement made in the Press which is contradictory to Khojeste’s email dated May 20, 2014. This double information is obviously being circulated in order to create chaos and confusion within the community. The owner of the PT paper (Kersi Randeria) that has issued this article is also (allegedly) a business partner with one of our trustees, proving a direct nexus between the authenticity of the article published and the stand of the trustee(s) in question.
I would request for a clarification on this issue by the four trustees before the board meeting tomorrow so the same can be discussed at length.
Email dated June 20, 2014 from Desai to Mehta
It is now abundantly clear that this story was planted by you in the MM to start a controversy so as to distract attention from your financial misdeeds and the on-going police investigation concerning your decamping with 45 lakhs cash belonging to the BPP.
Absolutely disgusting!
Email dated June 27, 2014 from Mehta to all the BPP trustees, BPP senior executive Cawas Panthaki and the chairman of the Wadia Group, Nusli Wadia
You are well aware that I had no role to play in planting any story with any publication including MM and that it was Nusli’s office itself, with possible collusion from you and Khojeste, that gave the news to the reporter but you all did not expect him to also publish my statement and the community reaction against this move was so vehement that all of you have now been forced to back pedal…
You are now once again (allegedly) using Nusli’s support to bring senior police pressure at the MRA Marg Police Station to get another false case set up against me and disgracefully in return you are willing to side with him, at first to hand over the Wadia baugs to him and now back pedalling to only confirming the existence/continuance of the Wadia Trust. To what purpose, I wonder? This is your quid pro quo you have agreed to with him. It seems you will stoop to whatever level necessary to try to harm me and in reality all you are actually doing is harming the trust and the community. I would have hoped by now some WAPIZ (World Alliance of Parsi Irani Zarthoshtis) members would have put some sense into you, but seeing your diminishing popularity within WAPIZ itself shows you have no support from your own organization. (Mistree and Desai are founder trustees of WAPIZ — editors).
Email dated July 1, 2014 from Desai to Mehta
Having been reduced to a minority on the BPP board and being shorn of your powers is really affecting your mental state…
Regarding Nusli Wadia wanting his baugs back — Dinshaw, we are tired of your usual, deliberate twisting of facts. Please accept the truth, even if it is unpalatable to you. I will reiterate for your benefit, since your mental state is obviously causing you to confuse facts and fiction. The tussle between Nusli and the BPP was and is with regard to the existence of the two trusts – N. N. & R. N. Wadia Trusts and the utilization of the funds of the two trusts. This issue was discussed at the WCM (Wadia Committee of Management) meeting of April 18, 2014, and at this meeting, Wadia gave all of us, copies of the legal opinions of Justice Srikrishna and (Maharashtra advocate general) Darius Khambata. He has never asked us to hand over the Wadia baugs back to him. If that was what he wanted (as you claim), he would not have given legal opinions which simply state that the trusts still exist and that the BPP trustees are also trustees of the N. N. & R. N. Wadia Trusts. The MM article appeared on May 20, 2014, a month after the WCM meeting. The chronology of events proves my point that it is preposterous for you to state that it was Nusli’s office who planted this story in the MM. Only you had a motive to plant this false story in the MM.
Regarding your contention that we took help from Nusli Wadia for the EOW (Economic Offences Wing) case filed against you for criminal breach of trust, you very well know that if Nusli had helped us, you would presently be in Tihar Jail and not sitting in the BPP office. Regarding your statement of the "honest and impartial” investigation carried out by the EOW, again don’t be under any illusion that we are unaware of which lady’s help you have taken to invoke the intervention of a well-known politician to scuttle the investigation. Your election friend Kersi Randeria has explained in the PT the "hollow” investigation done by the EOW. So cut the sanctimonious crap about having got a clean chit from the EOW…
Regarding the PT stating that four trustees are in favor of handing over the Wadia baugs to Nusli Wadia, you need to read your election friend’s PT issues more carefully as in the subsequent issue, it was clarified that the PT article was lifted from the MM article and that none of the trustees had been asked their views regarding handing over the Wadia baugs back to Wadia. And where is the question of us four trustees wanting to hand over the baugs to Nusli Wadia when he has not even asked for the baugs to be handed over back to him.
With regard to your contention of Kersi Randeria being my new found friend who has threatened to destroy you and your family, I put you to strict proof thereof. All I can say is that this is the same Kersi Randeria who you had no qualms "sleeping with” during Munchi’s election...
So, Dinshaw, just because you are used to making "deals” with all and sundry and operate on the quid pro quo system, don’t attribute the same to us. And stop your melodramatic, sanctimonious whining about you being the only person who has the interests of the community and BPP at heart — nobody is taken in by your lies anymore…
Email dated July 1, 2014 from Mehta to all the trustees of the BPP, Panthaki and Wadia
Instead of this continuous diatribe due to which the whole community is suffering, why don’t all of us go back for a fresh mandate from the community and let the community decide if you have the courage.
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