Macrotech Developers Ltd (Lodha) has informed stock exchanges about alleged forgery and fraud committed by the House of Abinandan Lodha (HoABL). The latter has, however, denied the allegations outright and has reserved its right to issue a detailed response.
Macrotech alleged the HoABL “fabricated” a board resolution and a PAN card of an ex-chairman and MD of Dena Bank and director of Lodha, Ashwani Kumar. “This was done with an intent to mislead customers and sell plots in Goa and other projects under the ‘Lodha’ name,” it further alleged. This is a new development in the ongoing battle between brothers Abhishek and Abhinandan, who are sons of Mangal Prabhat Lodha, leading builder and a minister in the BJP-led government in Maharashtra. Macrotech Developers, formerly known as the Lodha Group, of Abhishek Lodha had earlier moved the Bombay high court with a trademark infringement suit to restrain HoABL, which is owned by his younger brother Abhinandan, from using the brand name “Lodha” in any manner and has sought Rs 5,000 cr in damages. Abhinanda Lodha had separated from the Lodha Group in 2015 and started HoABL. The separation was formalised through a family arrangement. The Bombay High Court had appointed former judge of the Supreme Court R.V. Raveendran as the mediator to resolve the dispute.
Macrotech alleged that HOABL falsely made customers believe that they are buying from India’s number one real estate brand – Lodha.
Macrotech alleged in a statement that “the seed of the scam was sown in 2022, when Varpan Land Developers Pvt Ltd, a lesser known company of House of Abhinandan Lodha, passed a resolution in their board meeting on July 12 (2022) to change their name to Lodha Landbuild Infrastructure Pvt Ltd or Lodha Bhoomi Nirman Pvt Ltd. But it’s far from that simple to use the Lodha name, as the trademark is owned by Macrotech Developers Ltd.
“In a bid to ensure that the name change does not raise any red flags, HoABL obtained a resolution of Macrotech Developers Ltd. The resolution dated July 24, 2022 allowed formation of four new companies viz – Lodha Landbuild Infrastructure Pvt Ltd, Lodha Bhoomi Nirman Pvt Ltd, Lodha Land Design Infra Pvt Ltd, and Lodha Pictorials Landinfra Pvt Ltd. The four companies were allowed to use the Lodha trademark and were to be registered with ROC’s central registration centre at Manesar, Haryana. The resolution was signed by Ashwani Kumar, independent director of Macrotech Developers and former Chairman & Managing Director (CMD) of Dena Bank.
“Within days of obtaining this resolution, which paved the way for use of Lodha name, on August 3, 2022 Ashwinder Matharu, chief of operations, strategy and investments with HoABL, raised a service request with RoC to change the name of “Varpan Land Developers Pvt Ltd” to “Lodha Landbuild Infrastructure Pvt Ltd.” A day later, on August 4, RoC’s central registration centre at Manesar gave a nod to change of name. The very next month, HoABL started using Lodha Landbuild Infrastructure Pvt Ltd to obtain permissions and market one of their projects in Goa. The intent seems to be to deceive the customers of HoABL into believing that they are dealing with Lodha, India’s number one real estate company. As of now it is known that at least one of the HoABL projects in Goa was sold using this name between September 2022 and April 2023. Once the project sales had progressed, in April 2023, the name of the company was changed once again to “HOABL Landbuild Infrastructure Pvt Ltd” with a view to ensure that the misuse of the Lodha name would pass undetected.
“The only glitch, which has recently been uncovered by Macrotech Developers, is that the resolution dated July 24 2022, which allowed change of name to Lodha Landbuild Infrastructure Pvt and use of trademark Lodha, is forged. There was no board meeting of Macrotech Developers Ltd on July 24, 2022.
“Apart from forging Macrotech’s letter and seal, the scamsters also forged Macrotech’s independent director Ashwani Kumar’s identity. They prepared a forged PAN Card of Ashwani Kumar with a different photograph and signature. This forged document was used to authenticate the July 24, 2022 Macrotech resolution to RoC to change the name of Varpan Land Developers Pvt Ltd to Lodha Landbuild Infrastructure Pvt Ltd. To avoid detection of their fraud, after using the company with Lodha name for their project success, they changed the names in April 2023. Lodha Landbuild Infrastructure Pvt Ltd was changed to HOABL Landbuild Pvt Ltd.”
Macrotech Developers found out about this alleged fraud recently and the company has written to the exchange with details of the scam. They are also exploring options to initiate legal action against HoABL.
