KOLKATA, July 15: One of India's richest corporate empires, the Birla family, has united to challenge a huge bequest by one of its members to her accountant.
According to BBC, Priyamvada Birla, widow of a cousin of family patriarch B.K. Birla, left company assets worth 50 billion rupees (1.1billion dollars) to Rajendra Lodha.
B.K. Birla said there was "perfect harmony" in the family to challenge the bequest to a "complete outsider". Mr Lodha, who opened the will on Monday, was not available for comment.
Priyamvada Birla's husband, Madhav Prasad Birla, died in 1990 and the couple had no children. She ran the MP Birla group of companies after his death, until her own death last week at the age of 76.
On Monday, Mr Lodha, a leading chartered accountant whose firm audits most of the Birla companies, opened the will in the presence of the astonished Birlas at their Kolkata home, called Birla Park.
Mr Lodha was named the inheritor of the entire assets and management control of M.P. Birla. B.K. Birla said: "The family members have examined the will and the consensus is that we have the moral and legal right to challenge the validity of the will."
Lodha is a sharp financial adviser and accountant and has won many a court battle for the Birlas. There are seven distinct branches of the Birla tree, whose combined assets stand at 8.8 billion dollars.
The Birlas have hired two Kolkata-based solicitors firms, Khaitan & Co and NG Khaitan & Co, to draw up legal action. Sources at Khaitan & Co say a legal notice is likely to be served in a day or two to stop Mr Lodha executing the will. A lawyer at Khaitan & Co said it was "rather unusual" for Priyamvada Birla to have left her will with the intended beneficiary and not with her lawyers.
