Days after dna reported that Yazdi Desai, Khojeste Mistree, Jimmy Mistry and Arnavaz Mistry the trustees of the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) had filed a complaint against trust chairman Dinshaw Mehta, the latter has sent legal notice to them.
The notice dated November 15, has been sent to Mistree, Desai and Desai’s wife Anahita, who Mehta accuses of circulating the news report about the complaint. The notice has not been sent to Jimmy and Arnavaz, who were signatories to the police complaint.
Mehta demands an apology and withdrawal of the complaint, else he threatens of filing a Rs50-crore defamation charges. Why didn’t Mehta send the notice to the other two trustees? He said, “They were forced to file the complainant. They were given the choice of being either complainants or be co-accused.”
On November 13, the four had filed a complaint with the joint commissioner of police against Mehta for misappropriation of funds, cheating and criminal breach of trust. They had alleged that Rs45 lakh went unaccounted for after a BPP property changed their tenancy rights.
Mistree said, “It (defamation notice) is totally inapplicable. If I find that a financial impropriety has taken place, as a trustee, it is my duty to get to the bottom of the problem. There is no defamation case in that. Anahita hasn’t even filed a complaint. I suppose, he thinks we will give in to his threats, but that’s not the case.”
“This is a joke, because then every accused will file for defamation. Mehta is resorting to such threats to intimidate us. We will give a fitting response,” said Desai.