Kalyani family dispute escalates

THE FAMILY DISPUTE involving Bharat Forge chairman Baba Kalyani and his younger sister Sugandha Hiremath has flared up once again.

- GEETA NAIR

The latest salvo has been fired by Baba Kalyani's nephew, Sameer Hiremath and niece Pallavi Anish Swadi.

Both filed a suit on March 20 in the Pune sessions court against Baba Kalyani and his family, seeking partition of Kalyani's family assets. These include shares of several listed and private limited companies, which in turn hold a major chunk of the listed companies under the Kalyani Group. The duo said they have a share in Kalyani Hindu Undivided Family (HUF) assets.

Several assets owned by the group, which is spearheaded by Baba Kalyani, are sought to be partitioned. The petition says as all these businesses were commenced and the investments were made from the nucleus of the joint family headed by Annappa Kalyani (father of Neelkanth Kalyani and grandfather of Baba Kalyani), they constituted the properties of the joint family. The petition said Annappa N Kalyani (ANK), who was a successful businessman and agriculturist was the "karta of and manager of the Joint Hindu family, comprising himself, his first wife namely, Parvati Annappa Kalyani, second wife Akutai Annappa Kalyani and his son Neelkanth Annappa Kalyani.

According to the siblings, Baba Kalyani has been enjoying and using the assets alone and has not been sharing any information about the assets in the HUF.