Lilavati hospital dispute gets murkier, trustee alleges assault

The legal battle over the control of the Rs700 crore Lilavati Hospital has become murkier with a second FIR being lodged against trustee Chetan Mehta for allegedly assaulting his aunt Charu and her family members when they went to attend the Board of Trustees meeting last month.

In a statement today, Chetan has denied the allegations of assault levelled by Charu's husband Kishore and sons - Rajiv and Prashant - at a press conference.

Kishore claimed at the press conference yesterday that he and his family were prevented by security guards to attend the Board of Trustees meeting on August 19 and were allegedly assaulted at the instance of his nephew Chetan. He said Charu had lodged FIR with the Gamdevi police.

Earlier, managing trustee Niket Mehta had filed an FIR alleging that he was assaulted by some persons at the instance of Chetan. The latter, however, denied the allegations.

In a statement today, Chetan denied the allegations of assault and said Kishor and his sons Rajiv and Prashant were not the Trustees of Lilavati Kirtilal Mehta Medical Trust.

"Their intention is to unlawfully take over the management of the Trust and sell the Hospital for personal gains".

He said a meeting of Board of Trustees was held on August 19 and Kishor and his two sons were prevented from coming to the hospital but they gate-crashed. To prevent this, the security and police had tried to restrain them. The allegation of intimidation and assault are false, he said.