In a clash where high finance meets hospital corridors, HDFC Bank’s top boss, Sashidhar Jagdishan, has marched into the Bombay High Court to challenge a criminal complaint that casts him at the center of a brewing scandal involving bribes, medical perks, and millions in alleged misdeeds.
The complaint, filed by the Lilavati Kirtilal Mehta Medical Trust—custodians of Mumbai’s famed Lilavati Hospital—accuses Jagdishan of pocketing ₹2.05 crore to help the Chetan Mehta Group retain an alleged illegal grip over the Trust’s inner workings. According to the FIR, that sum wasn’t charity—it was allegedly compensation for quietly aiding in a strategy that allowed the Mehta Group to tighten control over the institution.
The Trust hasn’t held back. In a blistering public statement earlier this month, it painted Jagdishan as a willing accomplice in what they call a campaign to “loot the Trust.” The allegations even stretch to “free medical treatment” provided to Jagdishan and his family at Lilavati Hospital—an apparent perk that the Trust claims hasn’t been acknowledged or denied by HDFC Bank.
Adding more weight to their accusations, the Trust claims to have parked ₹48 crore with HDFC Bank since 2022—suggesting what they see as a troubling conflict of interest. And then there’s the ₹1.5 crore, which Jagdishan is alleged to have offered under the CSR banner. The Trust calls it a cover—to allegedly destroy or forge internal documents.
But Jagdishan isn’t sitting quietly.
Senior counsel Amit Desai, speaking for the banker in court, called the allegations “absurd”—nothing more than smoke from the fire of a debt dispute. At the heart of that financial feud is Splendour Gems Ltd., a Mehta Group company now staring at a ₹65.22 crore loan default. Desai insists the FIR is payback, a “retaliatory move” after the bank initiated recovery proceedings against the defaulting firm.
Desai argued that the Trust’s complaint came only after attempts to rally support from the Union Finance Minister, the Reserve Bank, and the Anti-Corruption Bureau hit a dead end. “They now use the facade of Lilavati Trust to take action against us,” he told the bench.
For now, the courtroom drama is on pause. Both justices—AS Gadkari and Rajesh Patil—stepped back from the matter, recusing themselves without explanation. A new bench will take up the next chapter.
Meanwhile, HDFC Bank has broken its usual silence to condemn the allegations outright, branding them as “malicious and baseless,” part of a calculated strategy to obstruct lawful efforts to recover a mountain of unpaid dues.
It’s not just a battle over money anymore. This is institutional warfare—with a premier hospital, a private banking giant, and some very public dirty laundry.
