The Esplanade Court magistrate recently ordered the police to register a first information report (FIR) filed by Zenobia Poonawala, who is embroiled in litigation with her three siblings, reported MumbaiMirror (MM) on June16, 2025. A year after the death of her father, Farhad Ginwalla, on February 1, 2019 she alleged foul play. The siblings are named in the FIR of June 20, along with the doctor who signed Ginwalla’s death certificate, and several others.
When the Colaba police did not initially entertain her complaint, which included allegations of unlawful siphoning of her father’s extensive estate, she approached the Esplanade Court.
Ginwalla, who was 79 at the time of his death, was head of the century old Shroff and Company dealing with wine and spirits. He had reportedly been suffering from severe age-related conditions including dementia since late 2013.
His son Dr Rustom is a noted plastic surgeon in Bombay and two other daughters, both based in the US, are also doctors, Rashna being a trauma surgeon and Cherie a pediatrician. The siblings have been involved in legal cases over their Colaba home, Rutton Manor, a four-storeyed art deco bungalow.
Rustom told MM: "The allegations are completely false and baseless. They have already been investigated thrice — by the Colaba Police, the Maharashtra Medical Council and the Crime Branch’s Criminal Investigation Department. There are five FIRs and charge sheets against Zenobia. This is purely a property dispute and nothing else... She continually files these false cases against us to harass us and destroy us professionally.”