Lila Parulekar, 75, daughter of Sakal newspaper’s illustrious founder, Nanasaheb Parulekar, has triggered a serious controversy while drawing attention to her ailing condition and the future of the Lila Trust and properties in her name.
The Lila Trust, according to its sole trustee, Chandrashekhar Hari Joshi, was created by Nanasaheb Parulekar to ensure funds for Lila Parulekar’s marriage, medical expenses and foreign travel.
On Tuesday, Parulekar, who is bed-ridden at her 4A Queen’s Garden bungalow, told DNA categorically she had nothing to do with a prominent public notice published in her name in Sakal
newspaper on February 2.
The notice refers to the Lila Trust and Joshi repeatedly. “I have not given this public notice,” Parulekar told DNA at home when she was shown the newspaper with the public notice.
When the contents of the notice were read out to her, the famous animal rights activist said, “I am not familiar with the matter and I do not know who has issued the notice in my name.”
Under the heading ‘Lilatai Parulekar’s clarification’, the notice signed by her took offence and objection to a birthday greeting message that was issued as an advertisement in five newspapers by Chandrashekhar Joshi, who signed as trustee of Lila Trust.
That advertisement also asked for public donations “for Parulekar’s medical expenses and the Lila Trust’s on-going legal
battles”.
The notice issued in Parulekar’s name took offence to this advertisement stating that neither Lila nor her late father, Nanasaheb Parulekar, had appointed Joshi as the trustee of the Lila Trust.
Stating that she had filed a case against Joshi on the issue of his trusteeship, Lila said in the notice, “I have never received any funds from the Lila Trust, nor has Joshi ever bothered to inquire about my health in the past. I do not need any funds for any legal battles or for my medical treatment.”
Parulekar, in the notice, accused Joshi of misusing the Lila Trust funds and said that Joshi had published the advertisement to benefit himself. She then urged people not to trust Joshi and give him any donations.
“Joshi has never wished me for any birthday before. I wonder how he remembered me suddenly. I do not wish to accept these false greetings,” the notice concluded.
When contacted by DNA at his home on Tuesday, Joshi said emphatically that the notice that appeared in Sakal, “has not been given by Lila Parulekar.”
He said, “I was with her for at least 90 minutes on her birthday on January 31. There were at least 30 friends and admirers of Lilatai who visited her that evening.”
About his claim that he was a trustee, Joshi said, “Lilatai has always acknowledged the fact that I am the trustee of Lila Trust and has even accepted cheques from Lila Trust. It is a fact that neither Nanasaheb Parulekar nor Lilatai appointed me as the sole trustee of the Lila Trust. It was Jaswantlal Matubhai, the then sole surviving trustee and former chairman of Sakal Papers Ltd, who appointed me as the sole trustee on August 18, 1992. Today, I am the sole trustee and Lilatai is the sole beneficiary of this private trust.”
