After Macrotech alleges fraud in trademark usage, House of Abhinandan Lodha approaches cops, seeks probe

House of Abhinandan Lodha has filed a complaint at NM Joshi Marg police station in Mumbai

Real estate firm The House of Abhinandan Lodha (HoABL) has filed a complaint at Mumbai's NM Joshi Marg police station seeking a probe regarding the allegations levelled by Macrotech Developers (Lodha Group) that HoABL faked a Macrotech board resolution and the Permanent Account Number (PAN) details of a Macrotech director to "fraudulently" use the "Lodha" brand for HoABL's plotted development projects.

Macrotech's filing on April 2 gave a fresh twist to the ongoing feud between brothers Abhishek Lodha's Macrotech and Abhinandan Lodha's HoABL. Macrotech sued HoABL for violations for intellectual property rights and alleged unauthorised use of the "Lodha" brand, under which Macrotech markets its projects. HoABL has denied the allegations, with the parties undergoing mediation mandated by the Bombay High Court.

In its complaint, HoABL stated its "shock and surprise" at the allegations, and also said that it is not aware of the documents furnished by Macrotech in its filing with the stock exchanges on April 2.

"...Following an immediate internal review of all available records, we wish to categorically state that there has been no instance of fraud or forgery committed by us. The claim that boards of two of our group companies used fabricated board resolutions is false and strongly denied. We have therefore filed a complaint with the police on April 3, followed by a further letter of April 4. The complaint is to investigate into the alleged offences committed by unknown people and not any particular person . This marks the beginning of an official external independent inquiry into the matter," said a spokesperson for the House of Abhinandan Lodha.

In the exchange filing, Macrotech alleged that HoABL furnished a fraudulent board resolution with a fake signature of one of Macrotech's directors, with the board resolution stating that they have no objections with the usage of the Lodha brand by other parties, with which HoABL renamed two of their group entities to reflect the Lodha brand. Macrotech said that no such board resolution has been passed, and the company has also instituted a special committee of the board of directors to investigate the matter, in which Abhishek Lodha has recused himself.

"We fully stand by all that we have filed before the stock exchanges and other authorities. As and when we receive a copy of this complaint, we will respond to its contents - however, from media reports, we understand that HoABL has accepted that forged and fraudulent documents were used for the change of name of their companies, which vindicates our stance fully," said a spokesperson for Macrotech.

The complaint filed by HoABL with the police stated that in August 2022, it had approached a Delhi-based company secretary, Ramesh Kumar Shahi, in order to receive approval from the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) to register two subsidiaries with the Lodha name.

The MCA had rejected HoABL's earlier application, noting that since Lodha was a registered brand name, it needed a no-objection from the trademark holder, that is, Macrotech Developers. Shahi would later communicate to HoABL, according to the complaint, that the matter of the companies' registration was being handled by someone else.

When approached for comment, Shahi told Moneycontrol that he has not received any communication regarding the complaint by HoABL, and refused to comment further.