The Dady House debacle

The controversy over the tenancy transfer at the Bombay Parsi Punchayet’s (BPP) Dady House in the Fort area has accelerated into an all-out public battle between four trustees of the BPP and the former chairman of the apex Bombay trust and his son, a sitting BPP trustee.
On July 29, 2016 a double onslaught was launched on the former BPP chairman Dinshaw Mehta through the WAPIZ (World Alliance of Parsi Irani Zarthoshtis) Page in The Free Press Journal and a press conference that afternoon at the Garware Club.
The WAPIZ Page headline stated: "Dady House tenant confesses to giving cash on instructions of Dinshaw Mehta,” while the subhead noted, "Yazdi Desai suspects cash deal so Dinshaw Mehta returns the cash to the tenant and in exchange demands cheques from the tenant.” The Page carries an affidavit by one of the tenants Musharraf Kader who paid Rs 45 lakhs for the first floor premises in Dady House in which he states that Mehta told him that the amount "would have to be paid partly by cheque and partly by cash… Accordingly we initiated the process of arranging the cash amount of Rs 25 lakhs.
"I was told by Mehta we would have to make the cash payment at the residence of Mehli Colah (then CEO of the BPP, since deceased).” But when he reached the residence Colah was not there and upon phoning Mehta, Kader was instructed to give the money to Colah’s wife, Kader alleged.

Yazdi Desai, Kersi Randeria, Noshir Dadrawala and Khojeste Mistree; Musharraf Kader

Viraf (left) and Dinshaw Mehta

At the press conference addressed by current BPP chairman Yazdi Desai, BPP trustees Kersi Randeria, Noshir Dadrawala and former trustee Khojeste Mistree a reference was made to an affidavit given by Anaita Colah wherein she stated that her husband had instructed her "to accept and keep the parcel safe, I did not open the parcel and only accepted it.” She stated that her husband carried the packet "with him on his way to work… I am not aware of the fate of the parcel.”
According to Kader’s affidavit, on November 8, 2013 he received a phone call from Mehta asking him to meet him at his Foras Road office since he wanted "to return the cash amount and required payment by cheque.” Kader alleged he received the cash amount from Mehta.
In another affidavit dated July 27, 2016 Kader states that Dinshaw’s son Viraf met him at his residence on June 18, 2016 and "the primary purpose of the meeting was to dissuade me from revealing the true facts about the cash amount of Rs 25 lakhs paid by me in March 2013 and returned to me by Dinshaw Mehta on November 8, 2013.”
On July 13, 2016 Viraf’s brother Hormuz said the two of them would like to meet Kader, as per the affidavit. Accordingly they met the next day at Starbucks. "Concerned about the turn of events, I requested my relative, Sarfaraz Sayyed, to accompany me for that meeting. I also requested two of my friends to sit at a nearby table and take a few videos for the record.”
Kader claims that the two Mehta brothers pressured him to give a statement implicating Mehli Colah which Kader refused to do. A part of the video recording was played at the press conference but due to the ambient noise the conversation was not distinct.
Kader was present at the press conference and stated that the transaction amount for the first floor was Rs 45 lakhs. The Rs 65 lakh figure was the amount quoted for the fourth floor of Dady House which he felt was too high.
In a lengthy response dated July 29, 2016 to the allegations made against him Dinshaw stated, "In 2013 a complaint was filed by four BPP trustees, including Desai and Mistree, against me, with the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai police alleging misappropriation of cash of Rs 20 lakhs out of alleged Rs 65 lakhs transfer fees.”
Dinshaw alleges that the current trustees blackmailed Kader into giving the statement by withholding the tenancy agreement. As regards Rs 25 lakhs left with Anaita, Dinshaw states, "In the first place if the cash was meant to be taken by me then I would have called him to my factory directly and taken it straight from him instead of involving our late CEO who is no more.”
Dinshaw further alleged that Mehli had informed Desai "that the new tenants were not able to arrange the balance payment by cheque and wanted to pay the balance in cash to which Yazdi allegedly responded a trust cannot receive payments in cash and asked him to call the new tenants to personally meet the trustees in order to resolve the issue. But that was never done. Is it conceivable that after these instructions from Yazdi, Mehli would have accepted the cash at all? Even assuming that cash could or may have been taken by the late Mehli Colah, it is obvious that on Yazdi’s admonishment not to accept cash, he must have returned the same to (Kader) immediately as after October 20, 2013 he had slipped into a coma, never to recover again.”
Dinshaw denied "that I ever called (Kader) to my office to return the cash amount on November 8, 2013 and it is a complete fabrication as required by Randeria and Desai to get his tenancy and avoid the threat of closure of his guest house business.”
The Mumbai Mirror (MM) of July 25, 2016 in an article titled "Swords out in fight over Dady House,” stated Dinshaw had "filed a complaint with the MRA (Marg) police against the current trustees who transferred the tenancy to Musharraf Kader, Abdul Kareem P. P. and Mohiuddin Kader despite the three tenants being named as co-accused in the case pending in court. ‘I just want the police to thoroughly investigate. Why is that few of the current trustees have suddenly changed their mind to transfer the tenancy even when it had remained pending for so long? There is definitely some scheming going on,’” Mehta is quoted as stating.