Vijaypat Singhania has denied rumours of reconciliation with his estranged son, Raymond Group Chairman Gautam Singhania, days after a picture of the two posing together went viral online.
Speaking to India Today TV, Vijaypat Singhania, who stepped down as Raymond Group chairman in 2015, said that his son Gautam invited him over for coffee and shared the picture on social media with an ulterior motive. The elder Singhania said he received a call from his son’s assistant on March 20 while he was on his way to the hospital.
“Gautam Singhana's assistant was repeatedly trying to persuade me to come to the house. When I refused, he (Gautam) came online himself and said he will take only five minutes of my time over a cup of coffee,” he told India Today TV.
“I went most reluctantly, not realising that it was for an interior motive of taking my photograph with Gautam Singhania to send a strong message to the media. A few minutes later, I came down and left for the airport. Soon after, I started receiving messages with my photo with Gautam on the internet, claiming Gautam and I had made up, which was completely false,” he elaborated.
Gautam Singhania had shared a photograph with his father on X (formerly Twitter) on March 20.
“Happy to have my father at home today and seek his blessings. Wishing you good health Papa always,” the 58-year-old chairman of Raymond Group wrote while sharing the picture. The photograph sparked rumours that the feuding father and son had put their differences aside.
Vijaypat Singhania, however, said he doubts the “real motive” behind the meeting. “I don't know what his real motive was, but it was certainly not for coffee not to resolve our differences. The fact is, it is the first time in 10 years that I have ever entered JK House and I don't think I'm going to have to enter it again,” he said.
Vijaypat Singhania handed over the reins of Raymond Group to his son Gautam in 2015 when he stepped down as chairman of the textile and apparels business. The relationship between father and son soured thereafter. In 2017, the feud got worse after Vijaypat Singhania claimed he was not given a duplex in the family-owned JK House in South Mumbai.
The Singhania family dynamics were thrust into the spotlight last November after Gautam Singhania and wife Nawaz Modi Singhania announced their split. Nawaz later said she was denied entry to a Diwali party organised by her estranged husband and later accused him of physical assault.
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