Events & Personalities
“The will to contest”
Yet another will has cropped up concerning the Rs 200 crore estate of the late Purvez Dalal. This third will was purportedly made in January 2011 and in a public notice published in the Jam-e-Jamshed Weekly of November 2, 2014 one Aafak Ali Khan, aged 34, has put forward his claims to Dalal’s estate. Khan, a resident of the Ganesh Murti Nagar slums of Cuffe Parade, states that he was Dalal’s caretaker during his final years.
Two earlier wills have been placed before the Bombay High Court, one by Dalal’s former sister-in-law Villy Avasia and her stepchildren executed in 2010, and another by his "confidante” Manek Sukhadwalla made in 2011, with claims and counter claims about their respective validity (see "The will to contest,” Parsiana, July 21 and September 7, 2014). To safeguard the estate, in August 2014 the Bombay High Court appointed an independent administrator for the properties.
Dalal, who died in December 2011, owned buildings at Pedder Road and Vile Parle, flats in Colaba and Crawford Market, land and a factory in Manmad as well as stocks of blue chip companies. A report in Mumbai Mirror (MM) of November 8, 2014 mentions that when their reporters went to the address given by Khan in the public notice, local residents informed them that no such person resided there. Khan, though, maintained that he has been living there for four years. He told MM: "Purvez’s elder brother Jamshed was my friend since 2005. Through him I got to know Purvez who was unwell. I took care of him, took him to doctors, bought medicines and did chores for him.”
Two earlier wills have been placed before the Bombay High Court, one by Dalal’s former sister-in-law Villy Avasia and her stepchildren executed in 2010, and another by his "confidante” Manek Sukhadwalla made in 2011, with claims and counter claims about their respective validity (see "The will to contest,” Parsiana, July 21 and September 7, 2014). To safeguard the estate, in August 2014 the Bombay High Court appointed an independent administrator for the properties.
Dalal, who died in December 2011, owned buildings at Pedder Road and Vile Parle, flats in Colaba and Crawford Market, land and a factory in Manmad as well as stocks of blue chip companies. A report in Mumbai Mirror (MM) of November 8, 2014 mentions that when their reporters went to the address given by Khan in the public notice, local residents informed them that no such person resided there. Khan, though, maintained that he has been living there for four years. He told MM: "Purvez’s elder brother Jamshed was my friend since 2005. Through him I got to know Purvez who was unwell. I took care of him, took him to doctors, bought medicines and did chores for him.”
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