Leading corporate houses aspiring to enter the healthcare sector in the country are eyeing Mumbai's Lilavati Hospital, one of the largest private sector hospitals in Asia. This follows a furious feud among members of the charitable trust -- Lilavati Kirtilal Mehta Medical (LKMM) Trust -- that owns the hospital.
The senior members of the family trust are presently embroiled in a legal battle to prove the trusteeship following an alleged forging of the trust deeds by one of the brothers, who was managing the hospital.
Following a criminal complaint moved by two of the permanent trustees -- Kishore K Mehta and his wife Charu K Mehta -- about serious mis-appropriation of hospital funds, criminal conspiracy and forging of documents of trusteeship in LKMM by another trust member Vijay Mehta at the Bombay High Court, a criminal investigation has now been ordered.
According to industry sources many corporate houses including hospital majors have started approaching the hospital management as well as the trustees for negotiations for a prospective buy out of the hospital anticipating that the family feud may end up with a change of management. This 300-bed hospital, with an average 90 per cent occupancy, is valued at Rs 850 crore (Rs 8.50 billion) at present.
The hospital was established in 1978 by Kirtilal M Mehta under the LKMM Trust. While two of his children, Kishore K Mehta and Rekha H Sheth, and daughter-in- law Charu K Mehta are its permanent trustees, younger son Vijay Mehta is rotating trustee.
According to sources, Vijay Mehta, who is in control of the hospital at present had allegedly forged the documents to make himself a permanent trustee and remove his elder brother Kishore Mehta from the trust as he was abroad for sometime. Following this, Kishore Mehta has also been restricted from entering the hospital premises by the current management.
Rajiv Mehta, one of the trustees and son of Kishore Mehta, said, "We moved the petition against the current management of the hospital because we want to let the charity hospital remain with the trust, which was established with an objective of serving the public."
However, Vijay Mehta was not available for comments. When contacted, hospital sources said as the matter was subjudice they did not want to make any comments.
While the court has directed the Criminal Investigation Department to investigate the case in detail, the trust deeds have been sent for test to the Pune Forensic Laboratory. The investigation reports as well as the forensic results are awaited.
The trust members have also alleged that the people who are currently managing the hospital have also floated another trust within the hospital with an intention to siphon off money from the operational income as well as donations coming from the public and patients.