A Filipino-Indian billionaire has asked a panel of prosecutors of the Department of Justice (DOJ) to dismiss the multiple complaints for falsification of public documents filed against him by his brother over the alleged forged signatures involving several multi-million pesos worth of properties.
“I vehemently and categorically deny that there is any falsification and/or that I authored acts of falsification,” stated the counter-affidavit of Rajiv P. Chandiramani who is accused of violating Paragraph 1 of Article 172, in relation of Article 171 of the Revised Penal Code (RPC).
Rajiv expressed his belief that the panel of prosecutors will be able to ascertain that “the complainant’s allegations are baseless, contrived and manufactured.”
His counter-affidavit was filed on the complaint lodged by his brother, Amith P. Chandiramani, through the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).
Amith accused his brother Rajiv of forging the signature of their father, Prem N. Chandiramani who died in 2011, in the following documents: Dec. 11, 2018 deed of absolute sale involving the conveyance of property covered by TCT No. 46459 in favor of Royal Brothers Realty & Development, Inc.; Nov. 29, 2019 deed of absolute sale covering the conveyance of the property covered by TCT No. 004- RT2020000479 (PR-19450) in favor of Myview Philippines, Inc.; and Sept. 11, 2018 real estate mortgage TCT No. 46459 in favor of the Landbank of the Philippines.
Rajiv was also accused of forging the signature of Amith in the absolute deed of sale dated July 18, 2015 covering the sale of the properties covered by TCT No. 006-2010000064 and TCT No. 006-2010000065 in favor of Royal Brothers Realty & Development, Inc.
In his counter-affidavit, Rajiv told the prosecutors that he is a successful businessman who established several businesses including the Rheana’s Trading, Inc. which is one of the leading domestic companies engaged in the buying, selling, distributing and importing electronic products and accessories.
On the other hand, Rajiv said their father Prem “accumulated massive debts that eventually became the downfall of his businesses” and Amith allegedly became a drug addict who tried a number of drug rehabilitation facilities.
Rajiv said the complaint is “a resurrected falsification complaint which serves no other purpose than to compel herein respondent to give-in to Amith’s demands for more money.”
He recounted that Amith filed in July 2022 a criminal complaint of falsification of public documents and cyber libel against him and their mother, Pushpa, before the Office of the City Prosecutor (OCP) of Makati City.
“While these cases were at the initial stages, in order to obviate further litigation, for peace of mind and safety, and upon the persuasion of family members, Rajiv agreed to a compromise with Amith. Part of the monetary consideration for the compromise agreement is the mutual withdrawal of the cases that were filed against each other at that time, as well as a waiver and quitclaim provision covering any and all potential claims or rights against each other arising from, or in connection with the cases, as well as the estate of their late father, Mr. Prem Chandiramani. Thus, Rajiv withdrew the Complaint for Damages and filed a desistance in the criminal complaint for CyberLibel,” he said.
Rajiv also pointed out that under the compromise agreement, Amith affirmed and recognized the validity of the transfers of the properties and that “they were all made with his knowledge and consent.”
As part of the compromise agreement, Rajiv said he bound himself to pay Amith P150 million.
“In Amith’s Affidavit of Desistance, he had explicitly admitted that the filing of the Falsification complaint with the OCP Makati City ‘merely arose out of honest misapprehension and misappreciation of the facts’. This should be considered as an expressed repudiation of the material points of the allegations of forgery as contained in Amith’s resurrected complaint filed with the NBI,” Rajiv said.
He reminded that the compromise agreement Amith signed stated that the complainant agreed to “completely and absolutely waive any and all rights, participation and/or interest that he may have over the estate of the late Prem Chandiramani or any part thereof.”
“Applying the principles evoked in these cases, Amith should be deemed as being legally barred from claiming that there were falsified signatures as appearing in the subject documents. With due respect, if this Honorable Office were to rule otherwise, then, in effect, this Honorable Office would be disregarding the explicit agreement of Amith and Rajiv in their Compromise Agreement and would be ignoring the legal implications of the Desistance and the Waiver executed by Amith,” Rajiv also said.