Mumbai court admits Rs 500-crore defamation suit against Cyrus Mistry

The complaint was filed by Ramachandran Venkataramanan, the managing trustee of Tata Trusts

A Mumbai court on Tuesday admitted a Rs 500-crore criminal defamation complaint against former Tata Sons chairman Cyrus Mistry (pictured), his brother Shapoor Mistry, and directors of their companies, Cyrus Investments and Sterling Investments.

The complaint was filed by Ramachandran Venkataramanan, also known as Venkat, the managing trustee of Tata Trusts. He has accused Mistry and others of making false statements against him. 

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Krishna Paldewar has summoned the accused to appear before the court on August 24 and seek bail.

The hearing of another case between Mistry and Tata Sons over the acrimonious fallout is on at the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal. 

In his complaint, Venkat has reportedly said Mistry’s October 25, 2016, e-mail to Tata Sons directors and trustees of Tata Trusts contained “defamatory statements”. Mistry had alleged “certain fraudulent transactions of Rs 22 crore” involving non-existent parties in India and Singapore at AirAsia India; he had also said that Venkat considered these transactions as “non-material” and “didn’t encourage any further study” of it.

The letter had found its way to the media, causing enormous damage to his as well as his family’s reputation, claimed Venkat’s complaint.

He has also alleged Mistry made false statements against him at the National Company Law Tribunal in Mumbai. Mistry had reportedly said Venkat had asked Tata Capital to offer loans to C Sivasankaran, a close friend of Ratan Tata. The loans had turned bad.

Cyrus and Shapoor Mistry, through their investment firms, own about 18 per cent of Tata Sons, the holding firm of the $104-billion turnover Tata Group. They can now move the high court to squash the complaint.