Tata Rejoinder To Police Report On Pendse Soon

The Tatas will be filing a rejoinder in the court of the 19th metropolitan magistrate to the report filed by the Mumbai police after its investigations into the charges made by the group against the former managing director of Tata Finance, Dilip Pendse.

The Tatas had filed a complaint with the economic offences wing (EOW) of the Mumbai police against Pendse, alleging wrongdoing on several counts, including financial mismanagement, in running the affairs of the company.

However, the EOW in its report to the metropolitan magistrate on August 3, 2002, virtually gave a clean chit to Pendse on the basis of its investigations.

The Tatas, who received a copy of the investigation officer's report on August 22, have, however, raised several objections to the report and would be filing a rejoinder before the first or the second week of September, a top Tata group source said.

Other Tata group sources said the group would place before the magistrate the inconsistencies in the investigation and the conclusions drawn by the police. Quoting one instance, Tata group sources said the police report concluded senior Tata Finance executives had full knowledge of the affairs of the firm and Niskalp just on the basis of the finding that the board had approved the purchase of Global E-Commerce shares. This company was later amalgamated with Global Telesystems.

Among other issues, the issue of backdating Tata Finance share transactions and that of disclosure of personal share transactions would also be raised in the rejoinder, sources added.

The Tatas had filed a first information report (FIR) on August 6, 2001, against Pendse and others charging them with criminal breach of trust, forgery, falsification of accounts and cheating.

However, no chargesheet has since been filed. A subsequent FIR filed on October 31, 2001, also did not make any progress, sources added. Though Pendse has been charged with financial mismanagement at Tata Finance, none of the charges has been proved as yet.