Seems ousted chairman Cyrus Mistry is up for a bigger battle with the Tatas.
Now in a fresh salvo, two firms of Shapoorji Pallonji Group, Cyrus Investments and Sterling Investment Corp, managed by Mistry has made some serious charges against Tata Sons and Ratan Tata.
In a petition filed with the National Company Law Tribunal,
- The said firms have accused Tata Sons and Ratan Tata of involvement in fraudulent transactions of Rs 22 crore, alleged to have been carried out by group’s joint venture airline AirAsia India, reported Economic Times.
- The petition has also accused that the conglomerate, at the behest of Tata, had dealings with Hamid Reza Malakotipour, who has been identified by the US Department of Treasury as a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist”.
Making the allegations, they have cited the report by Deloitte which had conducted a forensic investigation on AirAsia India.
The Deloitte report has alleged that the airline’s former CEO Mittu Chandilya had instructed company payments totalling Rs 22 crore to to a Singapore-based entity where no service was rendered, and to an Indian firm which doesn’t even exist in government records.
However, Tata Sons spokespersons have termed the allegations as “completely baseless”, and told ET that each one of them will be responded to and proved incorrect.
“AirAsia India has already put it in the public domain, as early as October 31, that there is an ongoing investigation against certain former personnel of AirAsia India involving irregular personal expense claims and certain company charges,” he added.
.