Air Asia case: Tata Sons Board repose faith in Venkataramanan

The board of Tata Sons on Tuesday reposed their faith in R. Venkataramanan, who is the non-executive director and a nominee of Tata Sons on the Board of Air Asia India.

A Tata Sons statement here said its board was updated on the issues concerning Air Asia India Ltd (AAIL) pertaining to the investigations being carried out by official agencies.

"In this context, the Board expressed satisfaction that AAIL was cooperating fully with agencies investigating this matter," it said.

"The Board is aware that prior audits and forensic reports were initiated by AAIL on some of the issues being currently investigated and based on such reports there have been no findings of any wrongdoing on the part of its nominee director R. Venkataramanan."

The development comes after AirAsia India Director Venkataramanan was accused among other things of violating FDI norms in giving effective management to a foreign entity through FIPB clearance in 2013. Venkataramanan has denied the charges.

Tata Sons holds a 49 per cent stake in Air Asia India which is a public limited company.

Earlier this month, the trustees of Tata Trusts, which hold a majority stake in Tata Sons, expressed their confidence in Venkataramanan.

Last month, the CBI has named AirAsia Group CEO Tony Fernandes and others in a criminal case of violating FDI norms in giving effective management to a foreign entity through the Foreign Investment Promotion Board's (FIPB) clearance in 2013 and attempt to bribe for tweaking rules to get a licence for its joint venture to operate international flights.

The CBI FIR also names "unknown public servants" of the Civil Aviation Ministry, the then Foreign Investment Promotion Board, Venkataramanan, Director AirAsia, the AirAsia Group Deputy CEO T. Kanagalingam alias Bo Lingam.

--IANS

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