India, June 21 -- The legal confrontation between the Lilavati Kirtilal Mehta Medical Trust (LKMM Trust), which runs the prominent Lilavati Hospital in Bandra West, and HDFC Bank CEO Sashidhar Jagdishan escalated this week, with the trust filing a Rs.1,000-crore defamation lawsuit against the banker. This move comes just two days after Jagdishan approached the Bombay High Court seeking to quash an FIR that accuses him of accepting a Rs.2.05 crore bribe in a case linked to the trust.

Filed before a civil court, the suit accuses Jagdishan of making "malicious, false, and defamatory statements" against the trust and its permanent trustee Prashant Mehta. In a strongly worded statement, the trust said the legal action was necessary to counter...