InfraLive September-15, 2025

Fear of Forensic Audit InfraLIVE September 15, 2025 37 www.infralive.com family members continued like this. He also talked about massive corruption happening in the Trust/Hospital, and also claimed that after he stopped interference by Trustees, the hospital could generate Rs 70 crore profit (even without touching interest onFD) in the last two years. Some of his statements in the said email have been reproduced below: - r After I have stopped the inter- ference, by trustees, in the last 2 years we are making profits of over 70 crores, without touching the interest on our deposits. r Pl allow professionals to func- tion, without interference and bullying, and avoiding control through corrupt cronies like the nowsacked, AjayPande. r Pl never use officers to siphon offmoney. r Good professionals shall not agree to Gold Plating of pro- jects, to make money on the sly. r No self-respecting profes- sional, either shall be willing to go to jail, by violating court directives, or would like to be used by some Trustee to make money. Who isMr Lakshminarayanan S u b r a m a n i a n Lakshminarayanan is a 1970-batch retired IAS officer from Madhya Pradesh cadre. He has also worked as additional secretary, telecom at the centre when Nripendra Misra, was telecom secretary. The two veteran officers came together again for Ram Janmabhoomi Tem- ple in Ayodhya. While Nripendra Misra is the chairman of the temple t r u s t , M r L a k s hm i n a r a y a n a n donated his entire prop- erty to the temple trust f o r t h e G o l d e n Ramayana to be kept at the feet of Lord Ram's idol in the temple before it was inaugurated by P r i m e M i n i s t e r Narendra Modi on Feb- ruary 22, 2024. Why did he donate his entire savings? This is what he had said then, “I am on board of several companies listed in vari- ous stock exchanges, d r a w i n g s a l a r i e s and/or perk from some of them. One of them has given me a chauffeur driven car. Besides, I am getting over Rs 1.5 lakh pension. All of this is too much for me – a teetotaller, non-smoker and pure vegetarian Tamil Brah- min. That's why, I decided to sur- render everything to the Supreme Creator”. For the past 25 years, he has been t h e p r e s i d e n t o f S r i n g e r i Shankaracharya Peetham temple in Va s an t V i ha r , and S r i De v i Kamakshi Mandir opposite JNU, in Delhi. On August 1, we sent an email to him, requesting for his response on his email, “What apprehension you were expressing in this mail about "Pandora Box?” This was followed up by WhatsApp request. But, he chose to stay away from respond- ing. Parts 7, 8 & 9 of this story estab- lish that what he was saying about corruption, siphoning off funds, andGoldPlatingwas not wrong. A fter taking back the control of the Trust, the members of Group-1 came across certain emails regarding siphoning off funds of Trust/Hospital by the members of Group-2, which they have now produced before the courts and investigating agencies for appropriate action. In this part of the story, we ana- lyse two sets of such emails. This first one is titled as “applications for breaking of FDs” and the second one is on “Lilavati Hospital future”. The first set of emails were exchanged amongst the legal firm, Chetan Mehta of Group-2, and S Lakshminarayanan, Principal Advisor to the Board of Trust. In the mail dated May 9, 2020, the legal firm is seen advising Mr Chetan not to file “application for breaking FDs” expressing their apprehension that this may lead to disclosing accounts of the Trust and Hospital to the court. This will show that Trust has not generated any new reserves in the last 2 to 3 years, and the hospital was surviv- ing on overdraft facility and FD interest for meeting its expenses. This may lead to court ordering special audit of Trust and subse- quent action (pg 38). Mr Chetan had forwarded this email to Mr Lakshminarayanan for his advice. In his response sent on May 10, 2020 to Mr Chetan, Mr Rashmi and Mr Bhavin, he also echoed the same views as advanced by the legal firm. Additionally he warned that breaking of FDs will open “pandora's box” and “for sure, the High Court/Supreme Court, shall concede any request for a forensic audit” (pg 38). Mr Lakshminarayanan wrote the second email on January 27, 2024 (3 days prior to Group-1 took over control) to certainmembers of the Group-2 and senior doctors, etc (pg 39). In this email, he expressed his apprehensions about the future of the hospital if fight amongst the Part-6 Fear of Forensic Audit