New Delhi: An independent director of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), one of the two sellers of IDBI Bank, was also on the board of a Fairfax-controlled company for more than seven months while the Canadian group was bidding for it, raising serious doubts on conflict of interest.

Businessworld reported that Gurumoorthy Mahalingam, a former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) executive director and former whole-time member of Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), joined the board of Thomas Cook India on December 19, 2025. At the time, he was an independent director of LIC and a member of its investment committee.

However, there is no public record that Mahalingam took part in any LIC decision on IDBI. LIC has not said whether he disclosed his Thomas Cook role or stayed out of discussions on the sale.

Businessworld also said 17 former officials of the government, regulators and state-run financial institutions have worked with Fairfax and its Indian companies. Ten of them took up their roles after October 7, 2022, when the government invited bids to privatise IDBI Bank.

Seven months on both sides

LIC owned 30.24 per cent of IDBI Bank, half of the 60.72 per cent controlling stake on sale. The government sold the other 30.48 per cent.

Twenty days after Mahalingam joined Thomas Cook, the government invited financial bids for IDBI on January 8, 2026. LIC reappointed him as an independent director for six months from January 29.

During that period, the first-round bids fell short of the reserve price. That price was later discarded, and Fairfax’s revised offer was opened on July 13. Mahalingam held both board seats through all of it.

His LIC term ended on July 28. About 11 weeks later, on October 14, the Cabinet approved the sale to Fairfax at Rs 81 a share, worth Rs 52,878 crore.

At LIC, Mahalingam also sat on the executive, audit and risk management committees. The internal DIPAM note on the sale records that LIC’s managing director was on the committees that received and opened the sealed bids. His Thomas Cook term runs for five years.

Former regulators at the top

Two former senior RBI officials now head financial companies in which Fairfax has a big stake, Businessworld said.

BP Kanungo, RBI Deputy Governor from 2017 to 2021, joined IIFL Finance as an independent director in June 2025. He became its chairperson in December.

Biswamohan Mahapatra, a former RBI executive director, joined the board of Fairfax-controlled CSB Bank in April 2025. He was made part-time chairman a month later.

Former Defence Secretary Giridhar Aramane, who earlier served as an executive director at insurance regulator IRDAI, joined Go Digit General Insurance as an independent director in November 2025. Go Digit is one of the Fairfax businesses the group has proposed to move into IDBI after the takeover.

From government to Fairfax adviser

Fairfax named former NITI Aayog chief executive officer (CEO) Amitabh Kant its senior advisor on June 26, 2025, the same month he stepped down as India’s G20 Sherpa. Kant headed NITI Aayog from 2016 to 2022.

Fairfax had said at the time that his experience would bring significant value to the group and its affiliates.

Here too, there is no public evidence that Kant had any role in the IDBI deal while in government, or that his advisory work for Fairfax covers IDBI.

The controversy

Businessworld had earlier reported, based on an internal Finance Ministry note, that officials opened Fairfax’s bid, set aside the original reserve price of Rs 94.42 a share and only then ordered fresh valuations, which came in below the Rs 81 bid.

DIPAM has said that due process was followed and that the reserve price was neither cut nor raised.