The complainant, Nimit Realtors, has named the Managing Director of McDonalds India, Amit Jatia, R S Sharma Construction manager, Real Estate Manager of the Company, Pradeep Athavale, Sanjay Soni, senior representative, owner of New Empire Irani restaurant, Behrooz Koshravi and co-owners, Behram Ayadi, Abbas Gulam Irani and Mohammed Hussain Gulam Razzak. On February 6, the accused were directed by the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate C L Thool at the Esplanade court to appear before him on March 26.

According to Ashok Kotangale, advocate for Nimit Realtors, in the first week of July 1995, McDonalds advertised for space for a restaurant. In its ad, the group said it needed a plot in and around the areas of CST, Zaveri Bazar andChurchgate. On July 13, 1995, Joint Director of Nimit Realtors, Abbas Igatpuriwala, along with Managing Director Ajit Shah, met Behrooz Koshravi, the owner of the Irani restauarant New Empire in front of CST. A deal was struck, and on the next day, Koshravi handed over a plan of the restaurant to McDonalds.

On February 28, 1996, Igatpuriwala, along with Pradeep Athavale, Real Estate Manager for McDonalds India visited Koshravi at New Empire Restaurant. The complaint further states that Athavale asked Igatpuriwala to collect documents on details of the deal, such as carpet area, electricity bills, shops, and establishment licenses from Koshravi. These documents were later submitted to McDonalds. Nimit Realtors also showed McDonalds restaurants in other areas.

However, Nimit Realtors learnt on February 5, 1997 that McDonalds had finalised the deal for taking over New Empire without informing them, alleged Kotangale. The firm wrote to New Empire regarding the deal, and on February 24, McDonalds wrote backsaying if Nimit Realtors did not arrange a meeting with all partners of New Empire Restaurant within two days, the firm would lose service charges.

The realtors sent McDonalds a legal notice asking them to pay up brokerage and commission charges for services rendered. The notice accused the fast food chain of failing to pay them brokerage of Rs 25 lakh.

Amit Jatia, Managing Director, McDonalds India denied the charges, saying Nimit Realtors was unable to arrange a meeting between the parties for well over a year. There was a gap of a year between their sending the site details to McDonalds (March 7, 1996) and the letter asking for service charges to be paid. (February 5, 1997).

Jatia also stated that there was a 14-month gap between McDonalds' denial letter to Nimit's advocates and the realtors' response to this. According to Jatia, the brokers who eventually entered into the deal - Messrs Patel and Bhownagree - helped arrange detailed commercial and legal negotiations with New Empire. Jatia furtherclaimed that sending papers and conducting site visits does not amount to brokering a deal.