New Delhi, Oct. 31 -- 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 s...