Venkataramanan sees ‘revenge’ in CBI case

Tata Trusts’ managing trustee and AirAsia India director R. Venkataramanan on Wednesday said that the CBI had “wrongly named” him as an accused in a case against the airline and that it was a result of Cyrus P. Mistry’s “revenge legal actions.”

The CBI has filed an FIR against Mr. Venkataramanan and AirAsia CEO Tony Fernandes for allegedly lobbying with government official to aid in skirting rules and getting regulations amended to procure an international flying permit.

Bribing alleged

In its charge sheet, the CBI said that ₹2.9 crore was paid as bribes in three different transactions.

“In my capacity as non-executive director of AirAsia India Limited, I have been wrongly named as an accused by the CBI on operational matters where I had little or no role to play. It is commonly known that the present accusations qua AirAsia India find their root in baseless allegations made by Mr. Cyrus P Mistry and the Shapoor Pallonji Group against Tata Trusts Trustees (me included) and Tata Sons in his ‘revenge’ legal actions,” he said in a press statement.

Mr Venkataramanan is responsible for management and oversight of all the Tata Trusts.

He has also that the allegations against him are “baseless” and part of a “smear campaign” run to discredit him and Tata Trusts, which contribute ₹1,200 crore for philanthropic activities.

After a bitter fallout with Tata Sons and Ratan Tata, Cyrus Mistry was ousted as the group chairman in late 2016. After his ouster, Mistry had flagged various governanace issues at the group, including alleged wrongdoings at AirAsia India.

Since then, Mistry and Tatas are locked in a acrimonious legal battle over various issues

Referring to the e-mail purportedly written by him on alleged exchanges with the Civil Aviation Ministry regarding changes in 5/20 norm, he said in the statement that there was an ongoing debate on the matter and AirAsia was among the many airlines that sought a review of the policy.