Lodha files Rs 100 cr defamation suit on Birlas

Kolkata , Nov 2: A multi-crore defamation suit has been filed against Birlas by Rajendra Singh Lodha before Calcutta High Court.

The lawsuit, amounting to Rs 100 crore, was admitted by Justice Anirudha Bose who ordered the warring groups - Birlas and Lodha to file affidavit by November 15.

The case will be further heard on November 27.

In his voluminous petition, Mr Lodha, now at the helm of affairs of M P Birla empire, said the media was abuzz with '' fake news'' generated by the Birlas against him.

The Birlas were issuing letters, press releases and sending e-mails to the media across the country tarnishing his image, the petition said.

''The Birlas' are after my client, Mr Lodha, to damage his image at any cost,'' Mr Lodha's solicitor Debananjan Mondal of Fox and Mondal said.

The defamation suit was also filed against Nabin Suchanti, director of Pressman Advertising and Marketing Ltd and Sarvadaman Ray, General Secretary of Centre for Social Equity along with B K Birla.

The suit prayed an order on the respondents restraining to publish any kind of defamatory article about Mr Lodha.

The leading industrial family -Birlas and the auditor R S Lodha- were locked in a bitter legal battle after it was flashed that M P Birla's widow Priyamvada had bequethed Rs 5000-core M P Birla empire to Mr Lodha by will made more than a decade ago.

UNI