Samir Modi, Executive Director of Godfrey Phillips, has accused his mother Bina Modi, also a Director of the firm, of orchestrating an attack on him, Economic Times reported on Saturday.
Godfrey Phillips India is the flagship company of Modi Enterprises. It manufactures popular cigarette brands including Four Square, Red and White, Cavanders, Tipper and North Pole. It also manufactures and distributes cigarette brand Marlboro under a license agreement with Philip Morris.
The ET report notes that after family patriarch K K Modi passed away in 2019, Samir took his mother to court over a dispute arising from the distribution of an inheritance amounting to Rs 11,000 crore. About half that inheritance comes from the family's nearly 50 per cent stake in Godfrey Phillips, standing at nearly Rs 5,500 crore at today's market prices.
“The incident happened on Thursday when I was trying to enter the scheduled board meeting of GP at Jasola in Delhi. I was prevented by Bina Modi’s PSO from entering the meeting. When I insisted, he tried to push me and said that I was not allowed to enter the board meeting," Samir told the publication.
He added that his mother had offered to buy his stake prior to the alleged attack.
“I had asked (them) to appoint any of the top five auditing firms for valuation and based on that I should get my 25 per cent share. Two days ago, they had responded with the names of two companies, asking me to select one of them for valuation. On Thursday, when I went for the board meeting, my mother's security officer stopped me and didn’t let me enter. As I tried, he held my hand and twisted it. Despite the pain, I attended the board meeting and then went to the hospital,” Samir told ET.
“I had never imagined to be assaulted in my own office. I suspect that the entire attack was premeditated with the aim to prevent me from entering the meeting of the company (of which) I am a director. While the court case on settlement of shares is pending, I’ll not sell my stake now. The effort is to remove me from the board, which will not happen,” he added.
In a complaint filed at Delhi's Sarita Vihar police station, Samir alleged, “My index finger has been broken into two and requires a screw and wire to be put together, and I may not regain full function of my index finger. The screw used to fix the finger will stay with me for a lifetime and my right-hand index finger will never be wholly functional, I am informed by the medical practitioners.”
Rejecting Samir's accusation, a company spokesperson told the publication, “These allegations are entirely false and atrocious. The alleged episode occurred outside the board room when the audit committee meeting was in progress at about 12 noon. This has been captured on in-house CCTV cameras, which can be provided to the relevant investigating authorities.”