Dismissed Tata Sons chairman Cyrus P Mistry lashed out today at “shameful” case of top executives of AirAsia being booked for allegedly paying bribes to influence policy, saying there was a decline in governance standards at the group’s airline venture.
AirAsia director R Venkataraman, who has along with chief executive Tony Fernandes been named by the CBI in the FIR, for using his name to cloak his alleged misadventures, Mistry slammed them by saying individuals with “questionable motives” are shaming the Tata brand.
Venkataraman implied that his name in the FIR are “baseless allegations made by Cyrus P Mistry and the Shapoor Pallonji Group against Tata Trusts Trustees (me included) and Tata Sons in his ‘revenge’ legal actions”.
Mistry who was dismissed by Tata Sons chairman in end-2016 denied Venkataraman’s allegations as “malicious and defamatory”. He later said in a statement.
He later added that “The Board of Tata Sons and the Tata Trustees need to concern themselves over the decline in governance standards at Air Asia India that this shameful case reveals. The Group and its employees deserve better.”
“It is therefore deeply disturbing that a few individuals with questionable motives are today bringing disrepute to the Tata Brand, his weak excuse that he was only a non-executive director without any responsibility is total without any merit” he added saying Venkataraman was intimately involved in the affairs of AirAsia India right from the beginning.
Cyrus stated that Shapoorji Pallonji Group has had a relationship running over 50 years with the House of Tata, he said, “R Venkataraman, as the Managing Trustee of the Tata Trusts, should know better than to drag the name of such a remarkable institution into an investigation by the CBI over his alleged personal integrity and alleged corrupt business dealings.”
CBI has accused that the airline’s executives bribed officials through middlemen to sway government decisions including obtaining a flying permit for domestic arm and approvals to operate internationally.
“This ridiculous attempt to question the independence of the CBI and to cloak his alleged misadventures by using my name is treated with the contempt it deserves. His alleged actions, which are today under investigation, raise grave public concerns over his credibility and ability to be the custodian of India’s largest public charitable trust,” Mistry said. “Needless to state, I deny all the malicious and defamatory allegations against me.”
Cyrus Mistry was removed from the post of chairman in 2016 after a fallout with the Ratan Tata and Tata Sons.
Image Source – IndiaTV