Dispute within the Parsi punchayat comes to the fore, after trustee Noshir Dadrawala accuses chairman Yazdi Desai of discrepancies
Noshir Dadrawala and Yazdi Desai
Internal tussle within the Bombay Parsi Punchayat took an ugly turn this week, after a spat between its trustee Noshir Dadrawala and chairman Yazdi Desai went public. On Friday, Dadrawala had forwarded a message on WhatsApp, raising allegations against Desai and his wife, Anahita. Soon after, Desai released his response to the allegations.
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Dadrawala had claimed that Desai had registered a leave and license agreement for the allotment of a BPP flat with just his name, without the approval from two of the trustees, as stipulated in the rule-book. He went on to allege that Desai had favoured a non-Parsi, since he wanted to offer her the ownership of a flat in Borivli. He also raised objections against the involvement of Desai's wife, Anahita, and referred to her as a "shadow chairperson".
On Saturday, Desai also took to WhatsApp to deny the charges. Later, speaking to mid-day, he said that he hasn't committed any fraud and would be filing a case of criminal defamation against Dadrawala. On the allegations raised against his wife, Desai said, "My wife is not taking any decisions. She only relays my message to people when I'm not available."
While other trustees, including Xerxes Dastur and Kersi Randeria, refused to comment on the issue, Viraf Mehta backed Dadrawala's claims. "All the points raised by Noshir are valid," he said.
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