Godfrey Phillips director Bina Modi withdrew her contempt petition against sons Lalit and Samir Modi in the Supreme Court on Monday, marking an end to a contentious family feud.
According to several media reports, Bina intended to pursue contempt proceedings against Lalit and Samir for their deliberate disobedience of the Supreme Court’s August 1, 2022 directive, which ordered all parties to refrain from making defamatory comments on social media during the mediation process.
Bina, disputing the outcome of the mediation, argued that there were sufficient grounds for contempt proceedings against her son Lalit Modi, citing the failure of the mediation process overseen by former judge R.V. Raveendran to resolve the long-standing family dispute over the KK Modi Trust property.
In her contempt petition, Bina accused her sons of violating the Supreme Court’s order by posting disrespectful messages on social media and giving interviews to news outlets containing falsehoods about their legal dispute.
The latest violation of the Supreme Court’s order, according to Bina, occurred when her sons allegedly provided false and fabricated information to the media.Samir claimed that a deliberate attack was orchestrated by Bina Modi and the board members of Godfrey Phillips India (GPI), driven by greed and aimed at depriving him of his rights and inheritance, with the intention to harm him physically.
Bina accused Lalit and Samir of violating a Supreme Court order by giving false information in media interviews. Samir claimed there was a planned attack against him by Bina Modi and Godfrey Phillips India board members, alleging it was motivated by greed and an attempt to harm him and deny his rights and inheritance.
Bina denied these allegations, stating there was no attack on Samir at all. “The electronic evidence of the CCTV footage and the personal affidavits of several eye-witnesses will establish that there is not an iota of truth in the story sought to be put out by the alleged contemnors. The alleged contemnors have put forth a concocted and manufactured a contemptuous, defamatory and knowingly false story and narrative around the events that transpired at scheduled board meeting of GPI on May 30 with the ill objective of interfering with the judicial process,” the contempt petition had stated.